Factors associated with blunt internal carotid artery injury in petrous temporal bone fractures

The incidence of blunt cerebrovascular injury (BCVI), including internal carotid artery (ICA) injury, is approximately 1% of all blunt trauma patients (1-4). Although rare, these injuries can have devastating complications, including stroke, haemorrhage and death, the chance of which may be reduced with early intervention. In light of this, there have been a number of efforts to improve the screening criteria for detection of these injuries in asymptomatic patients (2, 5). It is currently recommended that patients with a petrous temporal bone (PTB) fracture should be considered for BCVI screening with a computed-tomography angiography (CTA) scan, however diagnostic four-vessel cerebral angiography is considered the gold standard (2, 3, 5).
Source: Injury - Category: Orthopaedics Authors: Source Type: research