Brachial arteriomegaly and true aneurysmal degeneration: case report and literature review

While brachial artery aneurysms are rare and usually of infectious, post-traumatic or iatrogenic etiology, true aneurysms of the brachial artery are even more unusual. We report on a large brachial artery aneurysm complicated by chronic contained rupture and partial outflow obstruction. This was observed 19 years after ligation of a radiocephalic (Brescia-Cimino) arteriovenous fistula for hemodialysis that had existed for 2 years. Of 581 brachial artery reconstructions performed at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation between January 1989 and December 2000, only three involved repairs of brachial artery aneurysms; only the reported case was a true aneurysm of degenerative origin for an incidence of 0.17% (1/581). The management of brachial artery aneurysms is described and the pertinent literature was reviewed.