Circulatory arrest for repair of postcoarctation site aneurysm

Aneurysm at previous coarctation repair may be seen more frequently as children operated for this condition survive into adulthood. We use deep hypothermic circulatory arrest to repair these aneurysms.

A case series was conducted using 12-year, single-institution, retrospective chart review.

Twenty-one patients underwent left thoracotomy and repair of aneurysm at the site of previous coarctation repair. Three cases presented emergently as aortobronchial fistulas. The age range was 16 to 73 years (median, 26 years). The median circulatory arrest time was 33 minutes (range, 22 to 55 minutes). Repair involved interposition graft replacement. Six patients required additional tube graft replacement of the left subclavian artery. There was 1 operative mortality in a patient having a hypoxic brain injury secondary to an anaphylactic reaction to a plasma expander. There were no embolic strokes or paraplegia. One patient had a recurrent laryngeal nerve paresis. There was 1 case of Horner's syndrome after subclavian artery replacement.

Circulatory arrest allows for the accurate repair of this difficult pathologic process and avoids the risk of clamp-related injuries. Follow-up out to 16 years demonstrates this technique of repair to be durable, with no late deaths or reoperations for recurrent aneurysm.