Aortic coarctation is a congenital heart disease characterized by narrowing of the thoracic aorta. Many different techniques are used to treat the disease, including patch aortoplasty. If you need help with aortic coarctation, you can have your treatment abroad. On the Booking Health website, you can find out prices, compare the cost of treatment in different hospitals, and choose the best option.
Content
- Principles of patch aortoplasty for aortic coarctation
- How is patch aortoplasty performed?
- Advantages and disadvantages of patch aortoplasty for aortic coarctation
- Benefits of aortic coarctation treatment abroad
- Organization of aortic coarctation treatment abroad using patch aortoplasty
Principles of patch aortoplasty for aortic coarctation
Aortic coarctation can only be treated with surgery. In most cases, this is a severe malformation that is diagnosed immediately after birth, as it causes severe symptoms. Less commonly, aortic coarctation is diagnosed in adults. The defect is manifested by underdevelopment of the lower limbs and severe arterial hypertension, which is poorly controlled by drugs.
Hemodynamics in aortic coarctation can be restored using various methods, and all of them are surgical. Doctors can:
- remove the narrowed area and suture the ends of the artery;
- remove the narrowed area of great length and suture the prosthesis to both ends of the artery (prosthetic repair surgery);
- form a bypass for the movement of blood around the narrowed area (bypass grafting);
- place a tube inside the narrowed section of the artery (stent implantation);
- dilate the narrowed section of the artery by making an incision in the wall and implanting a synthetic patch, a subclavian flap, or, less frequently, a flap from the pericardium or other autologous tissues.
How is patch aortoplasty performed?
The operation is performed under general anesthesia. The operation is aimed at expanding the narrowed section of the aorta without its total removal. With such an approach, doctors manage to cope even with large areas of coarctation.
When performing surgery, doctors dissect the aorta. As a result, the lumen of the blood vessel increases, but a defect forms on its wall. The defect can be closed with various synthetic materials. Following hermetic suturing, the diameter of the aorta in the area of coarctation remains normal, and hemodynamics are restored.
Advantages and disadvantages of patch aortoplasty for aortic coarctation
Nowadays, doctors in developed countries use patch aortoplasty very rarely. The specialists prefer to use other methods since patch aortoplasty has more disadvantages than advantages.
The advantages of this technique are the following:
- minimum aortic clamping time;
- low invasiveness of the intervention, since it is not necessary to isolate a large segment of the aorta;
- no tissue tension;
- there is no need for a continuous circular twisting suture, so strictures (narrowings) do not appear in this place;
- it is possible to eliminate longer length coarctation;
- a low risk of immediate complications, including those caused by cerebral circulation disorders.
At the same time, the treatment method causes many complications over the long term. The material from which synthetic patches are made is stiffer than a normal aorta. It does not stretch, which means it increases the load on the opposite wall of the blood vessel. As a result, an aortic aneurysm may develop in the area of the operation after many years.
Patients who underwent patch aortoplasty are still at a higher risk of developing arterial hypertension. It reaches 50% in the long-term follow-up.
The patch cannot grow with a child. Accordingly, as the aorta grows, its tension increases, and recurrent aortic narrowing is possible. The technique is therefore not suitable for the treatment of children. It can be used in adult patients whose aorta size remains stable, but there are other more effective and safer treatment options for this group of patients, such as balloon plastic surgery and stent implantation (an endovascular procedure without any chest incisions).
Due to these shortcomings, the number of patch aortoplasty procedures among other operations for the treatment of aortic coarctation is constantly decreasing. Already at the beginning of the 21st century, this treatment method was preferred in less than 10% of cases, and today, these surgeries account for less than 5% of the total. This surgical treatment option has almost entirely been abandoned in developed countries.
Benefits of aortic coarctation treatment abroad
You can go abroad for high-quality aortoplasty for your aortic coarctation to receive reliable, safe, and good long-term results. Doctors in developed countries successfully deal with even the most severe heart disease. Cardiac surgeons from the world's best medical centers perform the most complex operations on children of any age.
Treatment abroad offers the following benefits:
- different types of operations are performed, and the best treatment option for aortic coarctation is selected for each patient;
- reliable results that do not deteriorate even after many years;
- a low risk of needing any revision surgery;
- successful repair of aortic coarctation even in newborns, including preterm infants;
- possible treatment of aortic coarctation in combination with other heart diseases;
- a low risk of complications;
- high-quality care after surgery, symptomatic treatment, and rehabilitation of patients.
Organization of aortic coarctation treatment abroad using patch aortoplasty
You are welcome to use the Booking Health service to undergo your aortic coarctation treatment abroad. On our website, you can find out the cost of treatment by comparing prices at different hospitals. You can use the sorting of hospitals by rating, reviews, cost of treatment, or the nearest available date of admission to select the best medical center.
If you cannot make a choice, the specialists at the Booking Health company will help you. Please leave your request on our website, attach medical documents, and you will be contacted on the same day. Our experts will help you select the most suitable hospital that specializes in the treatment of aortic coarctation and demonstrates the best results. We will make an appointment on your preferred dates and provide you with travel arrangement services. When you make your appointment through Booking Health, the cost of treatment will be lower than when you contact the hospital directly. The prices will be reduced due to the lack of increased coefficients for foreign patients.
Authors:
The article was edited by medical experts, board-certified doctors Dr. Nadezhda Ivanisova and Dr. Vadim Zhiliuk. For the treatment of the conditions referred to in the article, you must consult a doctor; the information in the article is not intended for self-medication!
Sources:
ECR - European Cardiology Review
American College of Cardiology
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