title: Repair of symptomatic aortic coarctation in the first three months of life. Early and late results after resection and end-to-end anastomosis and subclavian flap angioplasty.
abstract: During a 9 year period between January 1977 and December 1985, 98 consecutive infants under 3 months of age underwent surgical repair of symptomatic aortic coarctation. Resection and end-to-end anastomosis was performed in 73, subclavian flap angioplasty in 14, and other procedures in 11 patients. There were 20 (20.5%) early and 12 (12.5%) late deaths. No early deaths occurred in the isolated coarctation group. Associated complex cardiac malformations and age under 2 weeks at operation influenced significantly early and late outcome but not any particular surgical procedure. The survivors were followed from 6 months to 8 years and 8 months postoperatively. There were 16 (28%) re-coarctations among 56 survivors after end-to-end anastomosis requiring re-operation in 7 (12%) infants and 3 (30%) re-coarctations among 10 survivors after subclavian flap angioplasty requiring re-operation in 1 infant. After end-to-end anastomosis re-coarctation as well as re-operation rate was markedly lower when an interrupted suture line for the entire anastomosis was used as compared to the group with a continuous suture line of the posterior aortic wall (21% vs. 33% re-coarctation rate and 4% vs. 18% re-operation rate respectively). From our results it is concluded that subclavian flap angioplasty for relief of aortic coarctation in early infancy is not superior to resection and end-to-end anastomosis. In the end-to-end anastomosis group an interrupted suture line has a lower re-coarctation as well as re-operation rate as compared to a continuous suture line of the posterior aortic wall.
authors.affiliation: Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, University of Tübingen, F.R.G.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Fenchel
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Steil
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Seybold-Epting
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Seboldt
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Apitz
authors.forename: H E
authors.initials: HE
authors.lastname: Hoffmeister
mesh_terms: D000714:Anastomosis, Surgical; D001017:Aortic Coarctation / Q000150:complications / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery*; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D012008:Recurrence; D012086:Reoperation; D013348:Subclavian Artery / Q000637:transplantation*; D013524:Surgical Flaps; D013536:Suture Techniques