This is a very rare congenital heart disease. It is characterized by sudden cut off in distal part of aorta (vessel that supplies blood to body parts).
It is almost always associated with cardiac anomalies, like ventricular septal defect, aorto-pulmonary window etc.
It is classified into 3 types. Commonest is type B form of IAA.

Clinical presentation in cases of Interrupted aortic arch includes:

Difficulty in breathing, bluish discoloration of finger and lip etc.
In advanced cases, child may presents in shock like state due to insufficient blood flow to affected body parts. It occurs with closure of the patent ductus arteriosus (PDA).

Depending of affected organ, child may have:

Injury to liver, kidney, intestines

Diagnosis

Children echocardiogram is required for diagnosing interrupted aortic arch.
Occasionally, we need to do CT scan for confirming the diagnosis.
“Fetal echocardiogram” that we do during pregnancy can easily diagnose this disease.

Treatment

If diagnosed before delivery then delivery is advised in a tertiary care center where facility of pediatric cardiology is available.
Prostaglanding can be started after birth for maintaining the patency of PDA.
Definitive treatment is only by doing open heart surgery as early as possible.

Prognosis

Without surgery, there is very high risk for mortality of the baby. Now a day, there is a very good outcome of surgical repair.