Background: Percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) for the treatment of pediatric renovascular hypertension (RVH) in contemporary practice is accompanied with ill-defined complications. This study examines the mode of pediatric renal PTA failures and the results of their surgical management.
Methods: Twenty-four children underwent remedial operations at the University of Michigan from 1996 to 2014 for failures of renal PTA. Their clinical courses were retrospectively reviewed and results analyzed.
Results: Renal PTA of 32 arteries, including 13 with stenting, was performed for severe RVH in 12 boys and 12 girls, having a mean age of 9.3 years. Developmental ostial stenoses affected 22 children. PTA failures included: 27 restenoses and five thromboses. Remedial operations included: 13 renal artery-aortic reimplantations, one segmental renal artery-main renal artery reimplantation, ten aortorenal bypasses, one arterioplasty, one iliorenal bypass, and six nephrectomies for unreconstructable arteries; the latter all in children younger than 10 years. Follow-up averaged 2.1 years. Postoperatively, hypertension was cured, improved, or unchanged in 25, 54, and 21 %, respectively. There was no perioperative renal failure or mortality.
Conclusions: Renal PTA for the treatment of pediatric RVH due to ostial disease may be complicated by failures requiring complex remedial operations or nephrectomy, the latter usually affecting younger children.
Keywords: Arterial restenosis; Children; Percutaneous transluminal angioplasty; Renovascular hypertension.