OBJECTIVETo discuss the diagnosis and surgical treatment of congenital vascular ring and prognostic factors.

METHODSThe clinic data of 42 cases of congenital vascular from January 2010 to December 2013 was analyzed retrospectively (accounting for 1.04% congenital heart operations over the same period ). There were 26 male and 16 female patients, aged at surgery 24 days to 6 years (average 10.7 months). The diagnosis including pulmonary artery sling in 26 cases, double aortic arch in 10 cases, right aortic arch with aberrant left subclavian artery in 3 cases, pulmonary artery sling and right aortic arch with vagus left subclavian artery in 2 cases, pulmonary artery sling and left aortic arch with vagus right subclavian artery in 1 case. In addition to 4 cases the remaining 38 patients were still combined with other cardiovascular malformations. Thirty-six cases of children underwent spiral CT airway remodeling, 23 children underwent fiber- bronchoscopy. In addition to 2 cases of airway abnormalities not seen, the rest of the children were present in varying degrees in different parts of tracheal stenosis or tracheomalacia. All patients underwent surgical correction of congenital vascular ring, concomitant heart deformity correction surgery according to the situation (7 cases of atrial septal defect repair, 3 of ventricular septal defect repair, 1 of mitral valvuloplasty, 1 of bi-Glenn, 1 of coarctation of the aorta correction with ventricular septal defect repair, 1 of trilogy of Fallot correction). One case suffered resection of tracheal stenosis and Slide tracheoplasty simultaneously, another case was implanted tracheal stenting postoperatively after pulmonary artery sling correction.

RESULTSThree patients died in hospital (7.1%), the cause of death were recurrent granuloma formation postoperatively. Remaining 39 patients were successfully discharged. The median time of overall survival of children with mechanical ventilation was 14 h (22 h) (M (Q(R))), median ICU residence time was 5 d (8 d), and the median in-hospital time was 19 d (9 d). Tracheal intubation time and postoperative ICU duration time in children with pulmonary artery sling children were much more than in children with double aortic arch (23 h (123 h) vs. 9 h(9 h), 7 d (13 d) vs. 4 d (2 d)), but the difference were not statistically significant. There was significant difference in the duration of hospitalization between the patient with the pulmonary artery sling and double aortic arch (23 d (9 d) vs. 16 d(6 d)) (χ(2) = 10.157, P = 0.006).

CONCLUSIONSThe recent results of surgical treatment of congenital vascular ring is safe and effective. The extent and scope of tracheal stenosis and tracheomalacia is a critical influence prognosis.