[Symptomatic vascular rings in infancy. Surgical treatment in 19 patients (author's transl)].

The Authors report their experience in the surgical treatment of 19 patients under two years of age (75% under six months), with severe symptoms for the presence of a complete or incomplete vascular ring. Twelve patients had double aortic arch, two had a right aortic arch with a left ligamentum arteriosum, four a symptomatic retroesophageal right subclavian artery and one an abnormally placed innominate artery. Symptoms, methods of diagnosis, indications to the surgical treatment, surgical techniques and late results are considered. The Authors remark that even if correction of these rare congenital malformations may be simple and with a low operative mortality, many problems exist in the early diagnosis and in the post-operative treatment of these patients.