Posttraumatic Intracavernous Aneurysm

Two and a half months after blunt head injury, a 19-year-old man complained of headaches, repeated nosebleeds, unilateral blindness, and numbness below the eye. Angiography revealed an aneurysm arising from the carotid artery in its intracavernous course and extending into the sphenoid sinus. This clinical presentation is typical of the raretraumaticintracavernous carotid aneurysm and contrasts with the symptoms produced by a slowly expandingspontaneousaneurysm at this site. Recognition of this posttraumatic clinical syndrome can lead to prompt and effective surgery and should reduce the present mortality of approximately 45% for these lesions.