complications
Last reviewed 09/2021
Complications include:
- coarctation causing cardiac failure - generally occurring in the infantile type of coarctation. Generally this complication occurs at the end of the second week of life and is related to the constriction of the ductus arteriosus, which had maintained pulsatile flow to the lower half of the body via a right-to-left shunt from the pulmonary artery
- later it often presents as hypertension - mean life expectancy in adult type of coarctation is only 35 years and patients generally die of complications of hypertension