A Study of 53 Cases of Aortic Coarctation in Shahid Madani Hospital, Tabriz

Aortic coarctation occurs in 6 to 8% of patients with congenital heart disease. It is the fourth most prevalent heart disease which requires catheterization and surgical involvement in the early years of life. If surgical repair is not conducted on-time, it can lead to heart failure (HF) and death. That is why we decided to study this disease in shahid Madani hospital, Tabriz. 53 patients with aortic coarctation who underwent surgery from early 1999 to late 2003 in Tabriz Shahid Madani Research and Health center were studied retrospectively. 88% of the cases were diagnosed during routine examinations. The most frequent complaints of the patients were palpitation (45%) and exertional dyspnea (41%), and the most important signs were systolic ejection murmur in 96%, weakness of lower limbs pulses in 86% and hypertension in 45%. In ECG, 96% of the patients had LVH and in CXR, 45% had cardiomegaly. In angiography, 100% of the patients had apparent aortic coarctation, which in 14 this was associated with Patent Ductus Arteriosus (PDA) In other 15 cases, PDA was not reported in angiography but was discovered during operation. The most common surgeries were resection, end-to-end anastomosis (43%) and Dacron patch angioplasty (39%). In both methods the pressure graradient decreased to under 10 mmHg in the site of anastomosis and the late complications in the patch method was more than the other one.The diagnosis of this disease had been delayed in these patients because of imprecise examination of all four limb's pulses at the first examination of the patients, the patient's own ignorance, misdiagnosis, mismanagement and symptomatic therapy. In spite of PDA and low blood pressure in coarc region, these patients did not have severe pulmonary hypertension. Resection and end-to-end anastomosis is associated with less common late complications and if conducted in early ages, it can lead to complete recovery.