Unexpected co-arctation of aorta detected by transesophageal echocardiography during patent ductus arteriosus ligation

Abstract

In the presence of a large patent ductus arteriosus (PDA), aortic co-arctation (CoA) cannot be diagnosed clinically because PDA masks the clinical features. This condition impedes the identification of CoA by transthoracic echcocardiography. However, the closure of PDA can result in a severe clinical condition that causes a patient with undiagnosed CoA to suffer from shock and multi-organ failure. In this article, a case of PDA was presented, in which transesophageal echocardiography provided full information that could be used as reference to identify and define CoA during PDA ligation surgery.

Keywords

patent ductus arteriosus / aortic co-arctation / transesophageal echocardiography

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Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg