[Vascular rings as a cause of the respiratory disturbances in children].

Vascular rings are an infrequent cause of tracheal and/or oesophageal compression in infants and children. The authors present 11 cases of vascular rings in children from 3 months to 15 years of age. There were: double aortic arch in 5 cases, right aortic arch with left arterial ligament in 1 case, aberrant right subclavian artery in 2 subjects and pulmonary artery sling in 3 patients. The diagnosis was established on the basis of chest X-ray examination, echocardiographic examination, bronchoscopy, angiography and magnetic resonance imaging. Surgical correction was performed in all patients with good primary results. One infant died after several months after operation because of respiratoty system complications. As many as ten subjects were sent to paediatric cardiology unit from pulmonary departments where for the first time a suspicion of vascular ring existance was undertaken. All of them were previously diagnosed and treated in paediatric hospitals, usually as bronchial asthma. It is stressed that in every case of unexplained chronic coughing it is necessary to perform at least lateral X-ray examination of the chest with contrast in oesophagus.