This narrowing can be due to many causes, including infection during pregnancy, a congenital heart defect, a problem with blood clotting in childhood or early adulthood, or a genetic change.

Oxygenated blood returns to the left side of the heart before it is pumped throughout the body.

[4] Pulmonary artery stenosis symptoms depend on the location and cause of the narrowing.

This can lead to swelling in body parts such as the hands and feet and can present similarly to right sided heart failure.

In this treatment a catheter with a balloon on the end is inserted into a larger, peripheral vessel and moved to the narrowing site.

The goal is to tear two of the three layers of the artery, which increases the vessel's diameter and blood flow.

[4] Younger patients are typically treated with balloon angioplasty until they are older and the risk for metal stents is significantly reduced.

Multicenter studies reported the same safety profiles for simple versus cutting, with adverse effect rates of 2% and 3%, respectively.

Overall cutting balloon angioplasty has similar complications and restenosis rates as simple, but offers a more effective treatment, and is a better option for smaller areas.

[4] Stents allow for normal vessel growth during childhood and adolescent years, and do not damage the heart or vasculature.

Complication rates are around 12% and include drift due to blood flow, which can damage vessels, clot formation on the stent.

Studies reported that the adverse event rate decreased with patient age, likely due to less growth in the vessel.

[4] Because of lack of efficacy, limited accessibility to certain areas of stenosis, increased risk for scarring, and a high rate of repeat stenosis, surgical angioplasty is only used if other methods fail or if surgeons observe the narrowing while repairing another defect.