Background The aim of this study was to evaluate if the previous cardiac surgery (PCS) is the risk factor for short-and mid-term mortality following total aortic arch replacement in patients with Stanford type A aortic dissection. Methods Between February 2009 and February 2012, a total of 384 patients who suffered Stanford type A aortic dissection involving aortic arch underwent total aortic arch replacement with frozen elephant trunk. Of these patients, 36 patients had PCS. Logistic regression was used to identify if the previous cardiac surgery was the risk factor for in-hospital mortality. Propensity score-matching (1: 1 match) was used to yield patients from the primary surgery group who matched PCS group with respect to pre-operative clinical characteristics and post-operative complications. Survival analysis and differences between the two groups were performed by the Kaplan-Meier estimate and the log-rank test. Results The overall in-hospital mortality was 8%. Logistic multiple regression identified that cardiopulmonary bypass time >= 300 minutes (OR = 12.05, p < 0.001) and surgical period from symptom onset shorter than one week (OR = 2.43, p = 0.04) were final risk factors for in-hospital mortality and PCS was not the final risk factor. Of 36 patients with PCS, three patients died in the hospital and 33 patients were discharged from the hospital. Of these 33 patients, 32 patients matched primary surgery group successfully. During the follow-up period, two patients died in PCS group, one patient died in primary surgery group. The mean follow-up time was 35.38 +/- 14.12 months. The five-year survival was 96% for the primary surgery group. Previous cardiac surgery group five-year survival was 73%. Five-year survival was not significantly different between the two groups (p = 0.84 log-rank test). Conclusions PCS is not the risk factor for short-and mid-term mortality following total aortic arch replacement in patients with Stanford type A aortic dissection.