ORIGINAL ARTICLES  VASCULAR PAPERS 

The Journal of Cardiovascular Surgery 2001 April;42(2):233-6

Copyright © 2009 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Outpatient management of superficial temporal artery aneurysms

Porcellini M., Bernardo B., Spinetti F., Carbone F.

From the Department of Vascular Surgery Federico II University, Naples, Italy

Background. To eval­u­ate ­the fea­sibil­ity ­and safe­ty of sur­gi­cal treat­ment of ­the super­fi­cial tem­po­ral ­artery aneurysms on an out­pa­tient ­basis.
Methods. The ­records of 5 ­patients ­seen at ­our insti­tu­tion ­from 1983 to 1997 ­were ­reviewed ret­ro­spec­tive­ly. Preoperative diag­no­sis ­was ­made by ­patient’s his­to­ry ­and phys­i­cal exam­ina­tion, ­with no fur­ther eval­u­a­tion.
Results. Outpatient liga­tion ­and exci­sion of ­four aneu­rysms of dis­tal branch­es of ­the super­fi­cial tem­po­ral ­artery (3 fron­tal, 1 parie­tal) ­and ­one involv­ing ­its prox­i­mal por­tion ­was per­formed ­under ­local anes­the­sia. Supplementation ­with min­i­mal intra­ve­nous seda­tion facil­i­tat­ed ­the treat­ment in an uncoop­er­a­tive ­child ­and in ­the ­patient affect­ed ­with prox­i­mal ­STA aneu­rysm. All pro­ce­dures ­were unevent­ful. Patients ­were dis­charged a ­few ­hours ­after sur­gi­cal treat­ment. No ­patient ­required hos­pi­tal­iza­tion fol­low­ing dis­charge. No recur­rence ­was not­ed dur­ing fol­low-up peri­ods of 2 to 16 ­years.
Conclusions. Outpatient diag­no­sis ­and exci­sion of aneu­rysm of ­the super­fi­cial tem­po­ral ­artery ­can be per­formed safe­ly. Significant advan­tag­es of ­this path­way ­include no hos­pi­tal admis­sion ­and ­cost reduc­tion.