Percutaneous balloon angioplasty for native coarctation of the aorta. Early and intermediate term results.

ABSTRACT

We performed balloon angioplasty (BA) in 12 patients with native coarctation of the aorta (COA), aged 2-32 years (average 20.7). The peak systolic gradient across the COA segment decreased from 60.75 +/- 21.85 to 15.66 +/- 9.44 mmHg (p less than 0.001) after the procedure. Angiographically all had more than 50% increase in the diameter of the narrowed segment. During clinical follow up (2.42 months post procedure), all had marked symptomatic benefit. Follow up by haemodynamics and angiography in 4 cases (average 7.7 months post BA) and by echo-doppler in 2 cases (3.6 months post BA) revealed no evidence of aneurysm or restenosis. Our results indicate that BA is a simple, safe, nonoperative alternative to surgery in COA. The immediate and intermediate follow up results are encouraging; however, long term studies are needed to define the true incidence of restenosis and aneurysm.