Arterial dissection
What is Arterial dissection?
In medical pathology, a dissection refers to a tear within the wall of a blood vessel, which allows blood to separate the wall layers. By separating a portion of the wall of the artery (a layer of the Tunica intima or tunica media), a dissection creates two lumens or passages within the vessel, the native or true lumen, and the "false lumen" created by the new space within the wall of the artery.
Dissections become threatening to the health of the organism when growth of the false lumen prevents perfusion of the true lumen and the end organs perfused by the true lumen. For example, in an aortic dissection, if the left subclavian artery orifice were distal to the origin of the dissection, then the left subclavian would be said to be perfused by the false lumen, while the left common carotid (and its end organ, the left hemisphere of the brain) if proximal to the dissection, would be perfused by the true lumen proximal to the dissection.