Traumatic arteriovenous fistula as consequence of TMJ arthroscopic surgery. A case report

The ocurrence of a traumatic arteriovenous fistula after arthroscopic surgery of TMJ represents an extremely rare event. Specifically, this uncommon complication has been described only in a few case reports. In this light, the most frequent symptoms showed by this disease are thrills, bruits, pulsatile tinnitus, and an expansible vascular mass. Importantly, the severity of these symptoms is also dependent on the vessels involved. With regard to the management, is important to note that the vessel ligation with surgery as well as vessel emolization with endovascular procedures have been shown to be effective in the treatment of these cases. In view of that, the present study describes a case of superficial temporal arteriovenous fistula that arose as a postoperative complication of a bilateral arthroscopic eminoplasty of TMJ. The aim of the present report is to characterize this rare syndrome with the goal of proposing suitable treatments.

Arteriovenous fistula, arthroscopic surgery, eminoplasty of TMJ, temporal vessels.