Acute Aortic Dissection

Acute Aortic Dissection (aAD) for South England

NHS England cardiac clinical networks for the South West and South East regions, formed a South England Aortic Dissection network to develop a supra-regional standard operating procedure (SOP) for the management of acute aortic dissection(aAD), launched in March 2024.

Download the South England Supra-regional SOP on the Acute Management of Aortic Dissections

Our regional footprint

The South England SOP encompasses the diagnosis, imaging, stabilisation and adult critical care transfer of people presenting to hospitals in the following localities:

South West Region Aortic Centres South East Region
  1. Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly
  2. Devon
  3. Somerset
  4. Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire
  5. Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire
  6. Dorset
  7. Gloucestershire
 Plymouth

Bristol

Oxford

Southampton

Brighton

8. Kent and Medway
9. Sussex and East Surrey
10. Frimley Health and Care
11. Surrey Heartlands
12. Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West
13. Hampshire and Isle of Wight

Developed with input from multiple stakeholders across the two regions, including patients, the SOP is based on the seven principles in the NHS England Acute Aortic Dissection Pathway Toolkit:

  • Regional Governance
  • Coordination by Regional Multi-Disciplinary Teams (MDTs) & MDT Meetings (MDMs)
  • Regional rotas & single point of contact for referrals
  • Timely & reliable image transfer
  • Safe critical care patient transfer from ED to arterial centre
  • Specialist treatment of all acute Aortic Dissection
  • Regional education programme

These pages are where you will always find the current version of the South England aAD SOP, plus more details about the network, documents including patient leaflets, useful resources and links to further information to support the pathway.