Stents in the Management of Aortic Coarctation in Young Children

Stents were initially used in adult subjects for treatment of obstructive lesions of iliac, coronary, and renal arteries. This was then followed by application of stent technology to the pediatric population (1,2). The technique was initially used to treat branch pulmonary artery and systemic venous stenoses but then was extended to the treatment of aortic coarctation. The indications used for implanting stents for aortic coarctation are generally taken to be the following: 1) long segment coarctation; 2) associated hypoplasia of the isthmus or aortic arch; 3) tortuous coarctation with mal-alignment of proximal with distal aortic segment; and 4) recurrent aortic coarctation or an aneurysm after prior surgical or balloon therapy (3,4). Immediate reduction of