Journal of Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery

Background: Pulmonary artery (PA) sling is a rare vascular anomaly and is often associated with various degrees of tracheal stenosis. The aim of this study is to review the surgical outcomes and tracheal growth after the PA sling repair.

Methods: From August 2006 to August 2015, consecutive six patients (median age, 6.7 months; range, 2.7–21.7 months) underwent surgical repair of PA sling at our institute. All patients did not undergo tracheoplasty. We evaluated the degree of tracheal growth after the PA sling repair using computed tomography (CT).

Results: The median follow-up was 10.5 years (range, 5.5–14.5 years). There were no operative deaths but only one late death. One patient required balloon angioplasty because of left PA stenosis. CT showed significant growth of the tracheal lumen diameter in all six patients. The mean diameter of the narrowest section of the trachea increased from 2.2 mm to 3.9 mm after the PA sling repair (p<0.01). Additionally, the stenotic segment ratio improved from 54% to 26% after the PA sling repair (p<0.01).

Conclusions: Because of the sufficient tracheal growth after the PA sling repair, no additional tracheoplasty was required consequently, and furthermore early and late mortality rates was low.