Interruption of the aortic arch in adults.

The interruption of the aortic arch is a rare cardiac congenital disease; such patients may occasionally survive to adulthood without surgery. The associated intracardiac malformations may modify survival. Our aim is to report three young adults (18-19 years of age) with interruption of the aortic arch. Two had type C, and the other had type B with subpulmonic ventricular septal defect and pulmonary valve insufficiency. We review 106 cases collected from the medical literature into 3 groups: 1) the whole group of patients; 2) patients with isolated interruption of the aortic arch, and 3) patients with interruption of the aortic arch associated with ventricular septal defect. In the whole group we found 18 cases of interruption of the aortic arch type A, and 25 cases of interruption of the aortic arch type B; 37 cases of isolated interruption of the aortic arch and 43 cases associated with ventricular septal defect. Fifty percent of the patients died before 15 days of life (0.042 years). According to the cumulative frequency graphic, only 5% of the patients survived beyond the age of 5 years. We found no information to relate patient's survival rate and anatomic type of the interruption of the aortic arch. From adolescence, the survival of the patients with interruption of the aortic arch associated to septal ventricular defect was 7%, and a 14% survival was found in patients with isolated interruption of the aortic arch. No statistical difference was found between the means of the ages of these two groups (P > 0.25).