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 requiring intervention. While surgery used to be the only treatment option, endovascular intervention is now considered the first option in simple coarctation lesions. Despite increased popularity, there are currently no FDA approved stents for use in coarctation of aorta and data on the outcome of this procedure is still sparse.

Methods: Between October 2004 and June 2010, 33 patients who underwent treatment with Cheatham-Platinum stents for coarctation of aorta were retrospectively studied. All the patients underwent 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 2-71 years). The mean stent length and balloon diameter were 3.18 ± 0.56 mm and 15.7 ± 3.12 mm respectively. We achieved an immediate success rate of 96.9% with the only complication of aortic rupture which led to our single mortality in this series. At 6 month follow up no complications were noted in the CT scans. The mean echocardiographic aortic arch gradient at one year follow up was 21.73 ± 11.06 mmHg.

Conclusion: This study is one of the few cohorts of patients with stenting for coarctation of aorta in Iranian population which comprised a diverse group of patients from early childhood to elderly. It was demonstrated in this study that stenting for coarctation of aorta is a safe and effective procedure if done carefully and performed in selected patients.