Aortic coarctation: an overview

In severe aortic coarctation in the neonatal period, surgical repair is required soon after clinical stabilization. Elective repair of isolated aortic coarctation is nowadays indicated at 3–6 months of life or at the time of diagnosis. At present, no single operation appears to have a clear superiority. However, during the first months of life, an extended end-to-end anastomosis is considered the best option by most authors, even though weight at operation and anatomy of the aortic arch are also significant determinants of late recoarctation. In cases of aortic arch hypoplasia, which occurs in up to 70% of neonatal and infant coarctations, especially when associated anomalies are present, surgery seems the treatment of choice. After 3 months of age and in the adult population, balloon angioplasty and stent placement are considered a suitable option. Recently, we adopted a median sternotomy approach without the use of extracorporeal circulation for the treatment of aortic coarctation with a hypoplastic aortic arch. We treated 11 patients with satisfactory results at an average follow-up of 40 months.