A case of extracranial internal carotid artery aneurysm with massive bleeding from the oral cavity

Abstract

Extracranial internal carotid artery aneurysm (EICA) is a rare disease that accounts for less than 1 % of all aneurysms. The most common cause of EICA is arteriosclerosis, and some aneurysms that occur in the neck or tonsils exhibit dysphagia and pulsatile mass formation. In this report, we describe a case of EICA in an 84-year-old woman who presented with massive intraoral bleeding due to a denture ulcer. The patient with multiple medical histories, was rushed to the hospital due to recurrent bleeding from oral cavity. This patient was treated with coil embolization to stop the bleeding, and was discharged from the hospital 1 month after the surgery without any sequelae. Although rupture of an EICA is considered rare, when it does, it can cause massive bleeding and even death. Therefore, it is important to differentiate EICA that appears in the oral cavity from tonsillar abscesses and benign tumors.