Outcomes of Arch Reintervention for Recurrent Coarctation in Young Children

To evaluate the outcomes of reintervention for postrepair recoarctation in young children.

Between January 2011 and December 2020, all consecutive patients aged ≤3 years who were treated for postrepair recoarctation were included. Recoarctations were classified into two morphological types by three-dimensional imaging. Two methods, namely, surgical repair and balloon angioplasty (BA), were used to treat recoarctation.

This study included 50 patients with a median age of 10.5 months (range, 2.0-36.0 months) and a mean weight of 9.3 ± 3.1 kg. Hypoplastic recoarctation occurred most frequently in patients who had undergone patch aortoplasty at initial repair (p = 0.001). No hospital mortality occurred, and all patients achieved an increased diameter (p < 0.001) and a decreased pressure gradient (p < 0.001) at the recoarctation site immediately after reintervention. The median follow-up time after reintervention was 3.5 years (range, 16.0 days-9.6 years). Late mortality occurred in four patients (8.0%): two in the surgical group and two in the BA group (chi-square test= 0.414, p = 0.520). There was no difference in arch reobstruction after reintervention between the surgical and BA groups (chi-square test = 1.383, p = 0.240). Recoarctation with a hypoplastic morphology was the leading risk factor for arch reobstruction after reintervention (hazard ratio, 6.552; 95% confidence interval, 2.045-20.992; p = 0.002).

Reintervention for recoarctation has favorable early outcomes in young children. However, late mortality is not rare, and arch reobstruction is common during close follow-up. For young children, recoarctation with hypoplastic morphology is the leading risk factor for reobstruction, while the choice of reintervention method exerts little effect on the outcomes of arch reintervention.