Introduction: We report comprehensive clinical, echocardiographic and prospective computerised tomography (CT) follow-up data following aortic stent procedures from a single centre.

Stenting for aortic coarctation is known to be effective in the medium term. Aneurysm formation following stent implantation is a known complication. However, data regarding aortic wall injury and stent integrity following stent placement are sparse.

Methods: Full data analysis of all patients undergoing balloon expandable stent implantation and follow up procedures in a single tertiary congenital cardiac unit.

Results: From October 2002 till April 2008, we performed 102 coarctation stent procedures on 88 patients. Median age was 20.6 years (range 8.5-65) and median weight 65Kgs (range 34-101). Ninety-four stents (26 covered) were implanted. Twelve procedures were re-dilatations. Stenting resulted in a reduction of the gradient across the site of coarctation, from a median of 20 mm Hg to 4mm Hg. There were no procedure related deaths. Four patients had immediate complications (1 requiring emergency surgery). During median follow-up of 34.5 months (range 4.2-72.8), 2 patients had late complications requiring additional procedures. Follow-up CT or MRI data are available in 85 patients (96.5%). Only 1 patient developed a procedure related aortic aneurysm. Stent fractures were detected in 7 patients (7.9%).

Conclusions: Stenting for aortic coarctation and recoarctation is effective with low immediate complication rates. Computerized tomography is useful in the longer term assessment of stent integrity and post-procedural aneurysm formation. Overall incidence of post-procedural aneurysm is rare and stent fractures were not seen with common with newer generation stents.