Incidental Finding of Intercostal Artery Aneurysm During Coarctation Surgery

Intercostal artery aneurysms (ICAA) are very rare vascular complication of coarctation. The most cases are asymptomatic and could be found incidentally during thoracotomy for others vascular pathology or may present with fatal problems such as rupture that is leading to bleeding and hypovolemic shock. Intercostal artery aneurysm most commonly accompanies with neurofibromatosis, aortic coarctation, or in chest trauma. We report a 10-year-old girl who complained of lower extremities pain and hypertension for a few months. His final diagnosis was coarctation of the aorta. She was scheduled for thoracotomy and coarctation repair by resection and end to end anastomosis. During thoracotomy at lateral side of coarctation, an ICAA distal to coarctation site was seen that by a collateral artery connects to its upper intercostals artery. The patient was treated by ligation and resection of the affected intercostal artery and subsequent coarctation repair. The postoperative course was uneventful and, she was discharged on 7th postoperative day.