Background
Aortic complications during cannulation for cardiopulmonary bypass are rare, potentially catastrophic, and often difficult to manage expeditiously.1,2 We report the management of a large aortic tear without dissection during cannulation that was repaired under brief circulatory arrest with the novel and simple strategy of physician-modifying (P-MOD) a commercially available Dacron aortic graft by trimming out its side-arm and surrounding skirt to serve as the aortic patch repair.