Abstract
Purpose: To clarify the clinical significance of sonography for evaluating the location of the maxillary artery in the preoperative assessment of patients with jaw deformities.
Materials and methods: From April through May 2005, 12 patients with carcinoma of the maxillofacial region were enrolled in this study. Every patient was evaluated with sonography and contrast-enhanced CT. The maxillary artery was visualized through the acoustic window composed of the zygomatic arch and mandibular notch using power-Doppler sonography. The patterns of blood flow were divided into two categorie saccording to the interpretation of sonographic findings as follows: clear: continuous cord- or string-like structure, unclear: discontinuous dot-like structure or no apparent blood flow. We compared sonographic findings with the location of the maxillary artery demonstrated on contrast-enhanced CT.
Results: The sonographic interpretation of the maxillary artery was clear in 14 sides and unclear in 10 sides. Of 20 sides in which the maxillary artery was located laterally to the lateral pterygoid muscle on contrast-enhanced CT, the sonographic interpretation of the artery was clear in 14 sides and unclear in 6 sides. Of 4 sides in which the maxillary artery was located medially to the lateral pterygoid muscle, the artery was unclear in all of the 4 sides on sonography.
Conclusions: Although the whole course of the maxillary artery was difficult to visualize, it was suggested that sonography played a complementary role to non-enhanced CT in delineation of the maxillary artery for preoperative evaluation of patients with jaw deformities.
