A 28-year-old man, with a history of CoA repair using Dacron patch aortoplasty at the age of 10 years, presented with shortness of breath and sudden, severe central chest pain that radiated across his chest and back. The patient had been lost to clinical follow-up over the last 15 years. He was conscious, hypotensive (90/60 mmHg on both arms), and in distress with tachycardia (120 BPM) and relatively weak pedal pulses with cold distal extremities. A chest X-ray (CXR) demonstrated the widening of the upper mediastinum (Figure ).\nHe underwent emergency CT angiography, which demonstrated extensive mediastinal hematoma and contrast leaking from a 4x12 cm complex pseudoaneurysm of the proximal thoracic descending aorta (Figure ).\nThe intimal disruption started about 2 cm distal to the origin of the left subclavian artery (LSCA), which was probably the site of the patch repair. The aortic diameter just prior to the disruption was 2.5 cm, and the normal distal thoracic aortic diameter was 2 cm. Of note, there was compression to the distal aorta by the pseudoaneurysm, leading to significant narrowing, which explained the weak distal pulses and cold extremities. After the heart-team discussion, the decision was made to proceed with transcatheter endograft implantation. The transcatheter approach was deemed more feasible and safer than a surgical one, especially in the presence of a good landing zone for endograft placement (away from the LSCA) (Figure ).\nThe patient was taken to cardiac catheterization laboratory and, under general anesthesia, we implanted a tapered (28 mm - 26 mm) x 150 mm Valiant Thoracic Stent Graft with the Captivia Delivery System (Medtronic Vascular, Santa Rosa, CA). The endograft was implanted successfully with complete exclusion of the pseudoaneurysm and excellent flow distally (Figure ).\nThe access site (right femoral artery) was secured successfully with two Perclose ProGlide™ devices (Abbott Laboratories, Abbott Park, IL). The patient did very well and was discharged home after three days. A follow-up CT angiography revealed a widely patent stent graft with no endoleaks.
A 52-year-old male patient underwent surgical correction of interrupted CoA at the age of 20 years using EABG from the LSCA to the descending aorta. He presented with transient sudden central chest pain with sweating. He is a known smoker for more than 30 years and hypertensive for almost 10 years, on losartan 100 mg once daily. The blood pressure (BP) was 140/90 mmHg, equal in four limbs with no brachiofemoral delay. There was no ischemic electrocardiography (ECG) changes or rise in cardiac biomarkers. His transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) revealed normal left ventricular (LV) function, mild bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) regurgitation, and dilated aortic root. The patient was taken to the cardiac catheterization laboratory and underwent coronary and aortic angiography, which revealed normal coronaries, dilated ascending aorta (3.8 cm), post-ductal aortic interruption, and patent EABG with complex pseudoaneurysm at the distal anastomosis site measuring 2x2.5 cm (Figure ).\nAfter the heart team discussion, endovascular treatment was deemed more feasible and safer than redo-surgery. We implanted two overlapped Valiant Thoracic Stent Graft (Medtronic Vascular, Santa Rosa, CA) proximally 22 mm X 100 mm and distally 28 mm X 100 mm. The aortic angiography revealed complete exclusion of the pseudoaneurysm and patent stent graft with no gradient (Figure ).\nThe patient did very well and was discharged home after two days. A follow-up computed tomographic (CT) angiography revealed a widely patent stent graft with no endoleaks (Figure ).