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

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.