[Application of covered stent in the treatment of radiation-induced common carotid artery bleeding to a patient with nasoparyngeal carcinoma: a case report].

Bleeding is a rare but fatal complication after radiotherapy for nasoparyngeal carcinoma (NPC). In this article, we report an NPC case treated with radiotherapy complicated with bleeding of the common carotid artery(CCA). A 44-year-old man with NPC was treated with external radiotherapy 19 years ago, and a second course of treatment to the same field was administrated because of local nasoparyngeal recurrence 4 years ago. The patient was admitted to our hospital for massive bleeding. Conservative therapy including routine medication, blood transfusion and local compression showed almost no effect. Emergency carotid angiography revealed bleeding from the left CCA, and a self-expanding covered stent was deployed through percutaneous transluminal femoral approach. After the placement of the covered stent, angiography showed the bleeding was successfully controlled. So self-expanding covered stenting may be a safe, effective and minimal-invasive option for bleeding of the carotid artery. Long-term follow-up is required for further evaluation.