Takayasu’s arteritis is a chronic granulomatous disease that affects the medium sized and large vessels. Their causes are still unknown.

The disease is characterized by inflammation and stenosis of the vessels, and shows preference for the aorta and its major branches, pulmonary artery and coronary arteries, reason why it is also known as aortic arch syndrome.

It begins like a periarteritis to progress to panarteritis. It mainly affects women during the second to third decades of life, beginning between 15 and 30 years of age. The female exceeds the male by a ratio of 8-9:1, this gender predilection is also seen in children.

This disease is distributed worldwide, but it has been related to ethnicity, specifically associated with the Asian race. It is estimated that the incidence would be 100 times higher in East Asian countries compared to western countries; however, the small number of studies that report the frequency of the disease makes impossible to compare the incidence rates.

The incidence of Takayasu’s arteritis in Chile is unknown. Literature indicates an incidence of 2.6 cases per million per year in the U.S.

The authors reports the case of a Chilean 48 year old male, diagnosed with Takayasu’s arteritis, with 19 years of evolution who by reason of his illness had to undergo multiple bypass surgeries.

They also describe the medical management that was conducted to allow the dental care of the patient and his subsequent evolution.

Conflict of interest: None declared.