Equine pericardium-covered stenting in post-traumatic pseudoaneurysm of cavernous internal carotid artery

Abstract

We report a case of traumatic intracranial carotid artery pseudoaneurysm treated with an equine pericardium-covered stent. The patient was admitted to the Emergency Department after sustaining severe polytrauma in a motor vehicle accident. A cavernous carotid pseudoaneurysm was detected after an episode of massive epistaxis that required emergent nasal packing. Treatment with parent vessel sacrifice was ruled out after an unfavourable balloon test occlusion. We opted for an equine pericardium-covered stent as a means to immediately seal the wall defect in the setting of massive bleeding secondary to an unstable lesion. We describe the potential benefits and drawbacks of these prostheses and the technical difficulties encountered in this particular case. To our best knowledge, this is the first published case report on a post-traumatic intracranial internal carotid artery pseudoaneurysm successfully treated with an equine pericardium-covered stent.