Failure of cutting balloon angioplasty to prevent restenosis in childhood pulmonary venous stenosis.

We describe bilateral pulmonary vein stenosis in a 5-year-old boy. He initially presented with haemoptysis secondary to left upper lobe pulmonary vein atresia and left lower lobe stenosis and subsequently he underwent left-sided pneumonectomy. He underwent repeat cardiac catheterizations with repeated balloon angioplasty of the right-sided venous stenoses using a cutting balloon. Despite satisfactory initial results the pulmonary venous stenosis reoccurred as early as 2 months following balloon angioplasty. Although cutting balloon angioplasty has demonstrated effective immediate alleviation of pulmonary venous stenosis its utility in providing sustained improvement in pulmonary vein stenosis is limited.