Editorial: Is cystic medionecrosis the cause of dissecting aortic aneurysm?

Abstract

Medial elastic tissue lesions of the mucoid cystic type are not a common cause of dissecting aneurysm [in humans]. Such lesions are found most consistently in dissecting aneurysms associated with Marfan''s syndrome, which comprise less than 3% of the total cases and in the rare aneurysms of the ascending aorta occurring in the absence of syphilis or atherosclerosis. It seems advisable to abandon the term idiopathic cystic medionecrosis in favor of terminology which designates the defective component(s) of the vessel wall, as either muscle or elastic tissue or both.