A coarctectomy performed on infants with congestive heart failure in the first year of life is an emergency procedure due to the "coarctation syndrome". An intracardiac anomaly is also present in the majority of cases. The surgical risk of coarctectomy in the newborn infant or during the first year of life is now low (7 percent in our study), but intermediate-term mortality rates were relatively significant (24 percent in our study), due to intracardiac anomalies and their surgical correction. Without treatment, however, the coarctation syndrome proves fatal in two out of three cases before one year of age. The principal long-term complication is recurrence of the coarctation resulting from the absence of growth at the anastomosis. It occurs in 20 to 50 percent of cases depending on the study, the diagnostic criteria, and length of time since the surgery. This complication is more frequent when the coarctectomy was performed in the first month of life. Another coarctectomy must be undertaken in these cases. Persistent arterial hypertension without recurring coarctation is rarely observed, but is frequently encountered following a coarctectomy in an older child or adult. It should be noted that the systolic arterial blood pressure in almost all infants in our study was between the 50th and 97th percentile for normal children of this age. Aside from the problem of recurring coarctation, the long-term follow-up depends principally on associated valvular lesions, particularly aortic (bicuspid valves are very frequent) and mitral valvular lesions. Even though surgery has greatly improved the prognosis of coarctation in children, these infants must have long-term postoperative surveillance.