Procedural Outcome and One Year Follow up of Patients Undergoing Endovascular Stenting for Coarctation of Aorta: A single center study

Introduction: Coarctation of aorta is the fourth most common cardiac lesion requiringintervention. While surgery used to be the only treatment option, endovascular intervention isnow considered the first option in simple coarctation lesions. Despite increased popularity, thereare currently no FDA approved stents for use in coarctation of aorta and data on the outcome ofthis procedure is still sparse.Methods: Between October 2004 and June 2010, 33 patients who underwent treatment withCheatham-Platinum stents for coarctation of aorta were retrospectively studied. All the patientsunderwent control CT scans at 6 month and echocardiography at 1 year follow-up.Results: There were 17 females and 16 males with a mean age of 26.64 ± 16.30 years (range 2-71years). The mean stent length and balloon diameter were 3.18 ± 0.56 mm and 15.7 ± 3.12 mmrespectively. We achieved an immediate success rate of 96.9% with the only complication of aorticrupture which led to our single mortality in this series. At 6 month follow up no complicationswere noted in the CT scans. The mean echocardiographic aortic arch gradient at one year followup was 21.73 ± 11.06 mmHg.Conclusion: This study is one of the few cohorts of patients with stenting for coarctation ofaorta in Iranian population which comprised a diverse group of patients from early childhoodto elderly. It was demonstrated in this study that stenting for coarctation of aorta is a safe andeffective procedure if done carefully and performed in selected patients.