Università degli studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia

Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia
Corso di laurea in infermieristica - Sede di Modena

Abstract

The main purpose of this project  is to present the etiologic factors,the ways it can be expressed, the clinical characteristics, treatment and outcomes of an hospital patient with aortic dissection. Chest pain is the main symptom of aortic dissection and it is one of the most frequent manifestation that occurs in the triage, in fact more than 5% of the patients admitted to the first aid reports chest pain, a very unspecific symptom. Due to its rarity and to its complex symptoms the aortic dissection is often underestimate and misunderstood during the process of triage. I started by visiting PubMed, Medline and Cinahl databases,  the articles were found using the key words: aortic dissection treatment. The selection was made according to the publication date (time interval up to 10 years), in the presence of the full text and the relevance of the abstract. A lot of the material was taken from textbooks. The analysis shows the diagnostic - therapeutic - healthcare from taking care of the patient to the discharge and it’s divided in four chapters: the first describes the pathology, etiology, pathophysiology and general aspects and perspectives; the second chapter is focused on the signs, the symptoms and the complications of this disease, with particular attention to  the timing of triage and diagnosis. The third chapter describes the treatment and healthcare development, from outside the hospital to the effective arrival at the first aid and the medical and vascular treatments, focusing on the nursing interventions at different levels; The fourth and final chapter examines  what the surgical treatment is and its results, the healthcare role of the nurse in the pre- and post surgery and the role of health educator that he/she will have after the discharge of the patient.