The early and long-term results of surgery for coarctation of the aorta in the 1st year of life.

The cases of 110 infants less than 1 year of age, who had surgical repair for coarctation of the aorta between June 1974 and February 1988, were analysed. Three groups of patients were identified. In group 1 there were 39 patients with isolated coarctation. In group 2 there were 25 infants with additional ventricular septal defects (VSD), while in group 3 there were 46 infants with other associated congenital cardiac defects. Repair was performed using the subclavian flap aortoplasty (SFA) procedure in 83 patients, resection with end-to-end anastomosis (EEA) in 23, patch aortoplasty in 3 and Goretex tube bypass in 1. Twenty-eight patients had simultaneous pulmonary artery banding and one concomitant closure of the VSD. The overall early mortality rate was 8.2% (5.1% in group 1, 0% in group 2, and 15.2% in group 3). Age at operation (under 1 month, p = 0.04) and other associated cardiac anomalies (p = 0.03) increased early mortality significantly. There were 11 late deaths (10.8%) among 101 patients followed from 1 to 15 years (mean 5.3 years). Twelve patients underwent further surgery for recoarctation, eight of them within 11 months. A further 11 patients currently have a Doppler gradient across their coarctation site of more than 20 mmHg, but have not undergone further surgery to the coarctation repair site.