Balloon therapy of critical aortic stenosis in the neonate. The therapeutic conundrum resolved?

In this issue of Circulation, Zeevi and his colleagues from the Children's Hospital in Boston examine critically the results of surgical or balloon dilation therapy applied to a few neonates with life-threatening aortic stenosis.' Of 16 consecutive neonates from 1978 through 1984 undergoing surgery, there were six early and two late deaths. From 1985 through 1988, balloon dilatation was applied to another 16 consecutive neonates with severe aortic stenosis, with three early and three