It has been 200 years since Morgagni first described the lesion known as coarctation of the aorta. It was a diagnosis of academic interest with no treatment to offer until 1945 when Crafoord and Nylin1 and Gross2 almost simultaneously first presented a surgical treatment for this problem. The literature contains numerous articles, many of which differ in the basic concept of this anomaly, and with the advancement of diagnostic and surgical tools, a reevaluation of this entire subject is timely. Bonnett3 in 1903 defined coarctation as a narrowing of the aorta and divided the lesion into 2 major groups, infantile and adult. He defined the infantile coarctation as a mere narrowing of the vessel between the origin of the left subclavian artery and the insertion of the ductus arteriosus in the region of the fetal isthmus. He regarded it as a persistence or exaggeration of the anatomical