[Double aortic arch in infancy and childhood].

The diagnosis of double aortic arch was suspected by oesophagography and subsequently proven by angiography in six children. The patients' age ranged from 14 days to 13 years. The diagnostic value of angiography in establishing the existence of two aortic arches is emphasized, which can easily be performed by right heart catheterization. In five patients the aorta descended to the right of the spine; the left arch was hypoplastic and became stenotic or atretic distal to the subclavian artery. In only one case the aorta descended on the left side. In this case both arches had approximately the same size. Four patients were symptomatic immediately after birth and presented with severe inspiratory stridor. The clinical course was so dramatic that surgery was inevitable at the age of four weeks, at 4, 6 and 7 months respectively. The youngest patient died postoperatively. In the other infants the stridor disappeared only months after surgery. One girl had a stridorous respiration occasionally during infancy, later on she complained of dysphagia. She was operated on at the age of 13 years. The double aortic arch was an incidental finding in a girl of 8 years; surgery was not performed.