Aneurysms of the superficial temporal artery: literature review and case reports.

Superficial temporal artery (STA) aneurysms are a medical rarity. There are less than 200 patients reported in the literature. The majority of cases are of traumatic etiology and occur in young men. The senior authors reported a case of STA aneurysm in 1978. We now review the literature and report on three additional patients with STA aneurysm and a fourth patient with a temporal lipoma that was diagnosed initially as an aneurysm. This is the first report of a preoperative diagnosis of STA aneurysm that subsequently proved incorrect.