2006 Volume 15 Issue 5 Pages 420-426
We reported a rare case of posttraumatic trigeminal-cavernous fistula. A 17-year-old man was involved a motorcycle accident and he was admitted in a comatose state to our emergency room, and then recieved a craniotomy and removal of acute epidural hematoma at the posterior fossa. After the operation, his condition but improved he had left facial palsy and a hearing disturbance due to a skull base fracture. As he complained of a tinnitus twenty days after the operation, he underwent a magnetic resonans angiogram (MRA), which suggested a carotid-cavernous fistula. A cerebral angiogram disclosed a persistent primitive trigeminal artery (PPTA) and fistula from the PPTA to the cavernous sinus (trigeminal-cavernous fistula). The cause of the fistula was thought to be a skull base fracture around the foramen lacerum. This lesion was successfully treated by coil embolization via transarterial route. We reviewed the reports of 8 traumatic TCP and 7 spontaneous TCF cases.
