Extracranial internal carotid artery aneurysms: report of a ruptured case and review of the literature.

Aneurysms of the extracranial carotid arteries (ECAA) are extremely rare. Schechter et al. [1] documented 835 cases in the literature up to 1977. One hundred and sixteen cases of ECAA have been documented in the Chinese literature since 1981, suggesting a higher prevalence of carotid aneurysmal disease in China than in the West. Four percent of all peripheral artery aneurysms are reported to be ECAA [2]. Those arising from the internal carotid artery (EICAA) are even more rare. Two recent reviews [3, 4] reported 24 and 25 cases of EICAA during 21 and 17 years, respectively, the majority of them is treated surgically. Our literature review revealed only a few true EICAA managed endovascularly, but none of them with a covered stent. We describe a rare such case of ruptured atherosclerotic EICAA which was treated percutaneously.