Aberrant Internal Carotid Artery in the Middle Ear

Vascular anomaly in the middle ear is rare and asymptomatic. Especially, aberrant internal carotid artery is very rare and have little clinical significance if diagnosed correctly. However, misdiagnosis and unnecessary procedure can lead to serious complications such as massive bleeding and neurologic sequelae. To prevent this, it is important for the physician to be knowledgeable regarding this disease entity. Recently, authors experienced a patient with aberrant internal carotid artery diagnosed by temporal bone CT and MRA and thus present the clinical and radiographic findings along with a review of literature. (J Clinical Otolaryngol 2005;16:163-166)