Long-term Outcomes After Surgical Intervention for Congenital Supravalvar Aortic Stenosis in Children

Primary supravalvar aortic stenosis (SVAS) is a rare congenital cardiovascular condition that can coexist with Williams-Beuren syndrome, coronary artery involvement, aortic coarctation, and pulmonary artery stenosis. SVAS repair can be achieved with low perioperative mortality, but long-term survival remains less well understood. We used the Pediatric Cardiac Care Consortium, a multicenter United States-based registry for pediatric cardiac operations, to assess long-term outcomes after SVAS repair.

We used Kaplan-Meier plots and Cox proportional hazards regression to examine factors associated with postdischarge deaths. These included sex, age-group, weight z-score, coexisting conditions (Williams-Beuren syndrome, coronary artery involvement, coarctation, and pulmonary artery stenosis), surgical techniques, and era, defined as early (1982-1995) or late (1996-2003). Survival was assessed by matching with the National Death Index through 2021.

Of 333 patients who met inclusion criteria, 313 (94.0%) survived to discharge and 188 (60.1%) had identifiers for National Death Index matching. Over a median follow-up of 25.2 years (interquartile range, 21.1-29.4 years), 17 deaths occurred. The 30-year survival after discharge from SVAS repair was 88.7% (95% CI, 82.9%-94.8%). Infantile surgery and non-Williams-Beuren syndrome were associated with decreased 30-year survival. From the various repairs, the 2-sinus technique had better outcomes compared with all other types, except the 3-sinus technique (nonsignificant difference). Adjusted analysis revealed infantile age and type of repair as associated with postdischarge probability of death.

These data demonstrate favorable long-term outcomes after SVAS repair, except for the infantile group that was associated with more diffuse arteriopathy. As techniques continue to evolve, future studies are warranted to investigate their long-term outcomes.