Aortic Coarctation in Children Weighing Less than 25 kg: Percutaneous Axillary Artery Approach

Background:

Percutaneous treatment of aortic coarctation is the method of choice in children over 6 months of age and without aortic arch hypoplasia. However in patients less than 25 kg the classical access route (femoral) may pose a problem, especially in cases of stenting, due to the size of the size of the introducers. The objective of this study was to report our experience with the axillary artery approach for the percutaneous treatmentof patients with aortic coarctation weighing less than 25 kg.

Methods:

The arterial puncture was performed with a 21 G needle, with the arm abducted at 90º, and a 0.014 inch guidewire was positioned in the descending aorta. A 5 F × 7 cm pediatric introducer was initially used for the procedure and whenever required, it was replaced in a larger one. Manual-compression hemostasis was performed after the intervention.

Results:

Ten children were treated, eight with residual and two with native coarctation, mean age was 51.1 ± 30.8 months and weight 15.8 ± 5.8 kg. Puncture was performed in all cases without technical difficulty and the median introducer size was 7 F. Eight stents were implanted in eight patients and two patients were only treated by balloon angioplasty. Technical success was observed in all patients. After removal of the introducer, there was no permanent pulse loss and one patient had a small local hematoma.

Conclusions:

In our experience the axillary artery approach for percutaneous treatment of patients with aortic coarctation proved to be a safe and effective alternative in patients weighing less than 25 kg.

Aortic coarctation; Child; Axillary artery; Stents; Heart defects, congenital