[Ligation of the external carotid in the parotid space. Its surgical significance]

The classical procedure of external carotid artery ligature in the carotid sulcus presents certain difficulties: The subdiagastric lymph nodes and branches of farabeuf's venous trunk must be avoided, and major nerves and vessels, including the hypoglossal nerve, internal carotid artery, and internal jugular vein, identified and protected. An approach to the external carotid artery at its entry into the parotid space, as employed in parotidectomy, avoids such problems due to major anatomical elements. This technique appears to be simpler, less restrictive, and more rapidly accomplished than the classical method of ligature, when its objective, the most frequent one, is arrest or prevent ion of hemorrhage in the region supplies by the internal maxillary artery.