[Traumatic pseudoaneurysm of the superficial temporal artery: a case report]

We report a case of traumatic pseudoaneurysm of the superficial temporal artery (STA) in an 87-year-old man. Surgical treatment was undertaken after failure of ultrasound-guided compression. In this report, we review briefly the pathogenic mechanism, presentation, diagnosis and treatment of this type of aneurysm. Traumatic pseudoaneurysms of the STA are rare injuries, generally occurring after a recent (weeks to months) episode of blunt head injury, and primarily in a young to middle-aged (60 %) male (80 %) population. Clinical diagnosis is straightforward when the patient presents with a pulsating painful mass in the STA area and a history of trauma. Doppler ultrasound, CT scan and MRI are useful to confirm diagnosis and exclude the other possible diagnoses (i.e. hematoma, abscess, lipoma, cyst, meningocele, etc.). Surgery remains the treatment of choice for these lesions, however, other treatments have been proposed: endovascular coil embolization, percutaneous thrombin embolization or ultrasound-guided compression.