Aortic Specialist Centres
An Aortic Specialist Centre is a hospital able to treat all types of Aortic Dissection, 24x7, using the full range of modern techniques: open surgical repair, endovascular repair and medical management. There are not many of these in the UK and Ireland.
Many hospitals offer a partial Aortic service. For example, all cardiac surgery units are able to perform an emergency repair of a Type A aortic dissection, but they may need to transfer more complex patients. Similarly, many vascular units offer endovascular repair of the Aorta for Type B dissection, but may need to transfer patients needing open surgery.
Patients do better when cared for by multidisciplinary specialist teams that do lots of Aortic surgery. That is why our charity supports the growth of Aortic specialist centres. Our vision is for a national network of Aortic specialist centres, with at least one in every NHS Region and no patient in the UK living more than 2 hours travel time from a specialist Aortic centre. Here is a map showing all of the cardiac surgery centres in the UK & Ireland, which includes all of the existing Aortic specialist centres:
