Pseudocoarctation of the Aorta: A Variant or an Entity?

¹ Assistant Professor of Surgery, The State University of New York at Buffalo and the Buffalo General Hospital
² Associate Professor of Surgery, Ohio State University, Columbus
³ Professor of Surgery, Ohio State University, Columbus
⁴ Resident of Surgery, Ohio State University, Columbus

Four patients with pseudocoarctation of the aorta are presented. Two patients had congestive heart failure due to associated aortic stenosis and insufficiency. Cardiac catheterization and angiography confirmed the diagnosis and depicted other associated congenital anomalies. One patient had an aortic valve replacement but died of complications arising from pseudocoarctation. The pseudocoarctation was resected in the second patient on partial cardiopulmonary bypass and no further aortic valvular surgery was necessary. Two patients were asymptomatic, had retrograde aortography and required no further treatment. Based on our clinical and pathologic material, pseudocoarctation seems to be a variant of coarctation. The incidence of associated congenital defects is frequent and similar to coarctation of the aorta.