How does the heart and aorta work with coarctation?
The aorta is the large blood vessel that takes blood away from the heart and out to the body. The narrowed area of the aorta slows blood flow and makes the heart work too hard. The heart muscle may get larger from pumping hard. It must pump harder than usual to push enough blood through the small, narrow area of the aorta. If this happens, the area of the aorta in front of the coarctation may swell up like a balloon. With time, new blood vessels can grow to bypass (go around) the narrow area. There can still be problems even though other blood vessels are helping to move blood. These problems may include heart failure (heart wears out) or a ruptured (burst) aorta.
