Abstract
Coarctation of the aorta is a significant congenital heart defect with a clinical manifestation at any time during childhood or even in adulthood. Warning or diagnostic signs include arterial hypertension, diminished femoral pulses, an armleg blood pressure gradient, a systolic murmur in the interscapular area and in case of a critical defect a clinical presentation of heart failure.
Despite a relative simplicity of clinical diagnosis to prompt suspicion of this defect, a significant number of patients escape diagnosis until adolescence or adulthood. Coarctation of the aorta has a good prognosis.
However if it is diagnosed in older age or in the presence of atypical morphology a standard operating procedure with resection and endtoend anastomosis may not be successful and thus a more extensive procedure has to be performed. This could lead to future nonphysiological circulation and more significant residues.