title: [The right aortic arch with retrooesophageal component].
abstract: We report on 8 children with a right aortic arch and a retrooesophageal component of the upper descending aorta. The chest roentgenogram shows a right aortic arch and the oesophagogram a broad posterior indentation of the oesophagus in every case. Aortography was performed in 5 cases: in 2 children, the branches of the right aortic arch originate in a mirror image relationship to normal, in the other 3 children, the left subclavian artery originates as 4th branch from a retrooesophageal diverticulum of the upper descending aorta. Three children have an acyanotic congenital cardiac defect. Four of the children are asymptomatic while 3 have exertional dyspnoe and one suffers from dysphagia and frequent bronchitis. The symptoms are caused by compression of the oesophagus and the trachea by the right aortic arch, the retrooesophageal diverticulum and the patent or atretic ductus arteriosus originating from the latter. Only one child had to be operated for severe symptoms. There is a significant difference between the right aortic arch with or without a retrooesophageal component. The former mostly occurs alone and sometimes causes clinically significant oesophago-tracheal compression, while the latter is almost always combined with a cyanotic cardiac defect (tetralogy of Fallot, truncus arteriosus) but practically never causes a compression.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001013:Aorta, Thoracic / Q000002:abnormalities*; D001027:Aortography; D001991:Bronchitis / Q000209:etiology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003680:Deglutition Disorders / Q000209:etiology; D004417:Dyspnea / Q000209:etiology; D004940:Esophageal Stenosis / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D006330:Heart Defects, Congenital / Q000150:complications; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D005082:Physical Exertion; D014135:Tracheal Stenosis / Q000209:etiology
vernacular_title: Der rechte Aortenbogen mit retroösophagealer Komponente.