POST TRAUMATIC PSEUDOANEURYSM OF THE OCCIPITAL ARTERY: A RARE ENTITY

INTRODUCTION: Aneurysms of the external carotid circulation are rare. Of these aneurysms, scalp aneurysms involving the occipital artery are the rarest.1Aneurysms can be divided into two categories—false and true. The designation false, or pseudo-, indicates that the vascular wall has been breached and the aneurysmal sac is lined with the outer arterial layers or periarterial tissue. True aneurysms are different in that the dilated portion of the vessel is lined with all three layers of the native blood vessel—the intima, the media, and the adventitia.2 Most traumatic aneurysms are false aneurysms. In a review of the world literature from 1644 published in 1998, Conner et al found only 386 reported cases of traumatic aneurysms and pseudoaneurysms of the face and temple, most of which were superficial temporal artery aneurysms.3 Only two of these cases involved traumatic pseudoaneurysms of the occipital artery.4 Previously eleven cases of traumatic occipital artery aneurysm has been reported.1, 5 Although the true incidence of traumatic pseudoaneurysms of the occipital artery is unknown, it is obvious that they are rare. In this article, we report twelfth case of the world.