Introduction
Surgery for type A dissection is still today a very challenging and complex procedure. An important contributing factor to this complexity is, amongst others, the necessity during the surgical repair to enter the aortic arch and interrupt partially or totally the cerebripetal blood flow. Therefore adequate cerebral protection is one of the cornerstones towards success. In this paper, we will give an overview of the possible techniques and pitfalls in brain protection related to type A aortic dissection.