ABSTRACT
One hundred forty-four patients underwent operation for coarctation of the aorta at Seoul National University Children's Hospital between June 1986 and Decembsr 1995. Age ranged 0.1 to 191 months. Of these 78.5%(113) were infants. We classified the patients in terms of the anatomic location of coarctatiln and the associatCd anomalies(I[40]= primary coarctation, II[74]=isthmic hypoplasia, lII[30]=tubular hypoplasia involving transverse arch, A[63]=with ventricular septal defect, B[28]=with other major cardiac defects). Subcalvian flap coarctoplasty(60), resection and anastomosis(44), extended aortoplasty(26), and onlay patch(14) were used as surgical methods. Overall operative mortality was 16.0(23/144)%. The hospital mortality was significantly higher in patheints with type III, subtype B, younger age(under 3 months), extended aortoplasty(p<0.01). However, one-stage total repair in patients with subtype A or B were not found to be a predictor of hospital death. Restenosis had occured in 18 patients among 121 survivals(14.9%). The mean follow-up period was 29.1+/-28.8(0~129.2) months. Preoperative, immediate postoperative(within 3 months after operation) and postoperative(later than 6 months after operation) echocardiographic data on the dimensions of ascending aorta(AA), transverse arch(TA), an4 aortic isthmus(Al) were available in 77 patients(I=20, II=42, III= 15). Preoperative and postoperative aortic isthmus(All) and tra sverse arch indices(TAI), defined as TA/AA and AI/AA respectively, were compared. Immediate postoperative All in type I, II and TAI in type III were significantly smaller in stenotic than non-stenotic group suggesting incomplete relieves of stenotic segment Younger age, subclavian coarctoplasty in patient under 3 months of age were round to be the risk factors for restenosis in this series. In conclusion, We found that aortic arch index and transverse arch index can be a useful tool to figure out the anatomic and clinical characteristics of the patients with aortic coarctation, and that anatomy, associated anomalies, age, and surgical methods may influence the surgical outcome of the coarctation repair.