An Extremely Preterm Infant Born at 23 Weeks' Gestation With an Interrupted Aortic Arch Complex: A Case Report

Abstract

We present a case of an infant male born at 23 weeks' gestation with an interrupted aortic arch (IAA) complex. We treated the patient with hypoxic gas ventilation to address developing systemic undercirculation in the acute postnatal phase. As the symptoms of bronchopulmonary dysplasia evolved, hypoxic gas ventilation was no longer required to stabilize the hemodynamics. The patient was discharged home after undergoing the palliative surgical procedure of bilateral pulmonary artery banding and ductus arteriosus stent implantation. Although he suffered from pulmonary hypertension, it was controllable with oxygen supplementation and pulmonary vasodilators. There are limited therapeutic options available for extremely preterm infants with critical congenital heart defects (CHDs). Hypoxic gas ventilation might be considered as one of the options, with its risks taken into account, to manage extremely preterm infants with CHDs with pulmonary overcirculation before performing surgical interventions.