Pseudoaneurysm of the Internal Carotid Artery After Craniofacial Traumatism: Series of Cases and Integrative Literature Review

Abstract

The present study aims to develop an integrative review about pseudoaneurysms after traumatic facial trauma, through the analysis of its etiology, type of fracture, signs and symptoms, time elapsed between the trauma and the exposure of signs and symptoms, and treatment performed in these cases. Furthermore into the report, there are 3 clinical cases that occurred in the Buccomaxillofacial Surgery and Traumatology service of Hospital da Restauração Recife/PE. The study was carried out in 2 phases, first, a digital research about post-traumatic craniofacial pseudoaneurysm was performed in the following databases “MEDLINE/PubMed,” “Scielo” and “Scopus,” in September 2019, with 5 articles being included. In the second, 3 cases of patients with high-impact facial trauma who developed pseudoaneurysm of the internal carotid artery were reported. The average age of the patients was 35.6 years, all patients were male (100%), the majority (60%) being victims of an automobile accident, 3 patients (60%) suffered craniofacial trauma and 2 (40%) had trauma only to the face, most of them had symptoms later on due to the trauma, in 80% of cases the therapy instituted was embolization. Cases of high-impact craniofacial traumas, which present epistaxis and/or ophthalmological alterations correlated to fractures, should be carefully evaluated, determining a better prognosis for the patient.