Salvage of Failed Endovascular Management of Internal Carotid Artery Injury during Endoscopic Endonasal Pituitary Surgery

Rupture of Internal Carotid Artery (ICA) during trans-sphenoidal surgery can have high morbidity, as it results in altered mental status, stroke or cranial nerve palsies or is fatal for the patient as well. Hereby, Authors describe a case of 23-year-old female who underwent trans-sphenoidal surgery for recurrent pituitary macroadenoma. Removal of the pituitary tumour under general anaesthesia resulted in a bleeding pseudoaneurysm. Distal access catheter across the bleeding pseudoaneurysmal segment of right ICA was made and embolisation of the bleeding pseudoaneurysmal segment was done by placing stent graft. Then check angiogram was performed, which showed that significant embolisation was not achieved. Since, stent graft was unsuccessful to control bleeding, a decision was taken to perform neck dissection to clamp and control the ICA in the neck. Part of the procedure was to harvest a part of vastus lateralis muscle (1 cm × 0.5 cm), crushing it and mixing it with alternating layers of fibrin sealant. This mixture was put over the injured site for better clotting effect. The patient tolerated the procedure well, was shifted to the Intensive Care Unit and vitals were stable thereafter. There are very few instances in published literature which describe the repair of injured ICA using muscle and fibrin sealant. The present case highlights the importance of executing urgent and innovative techniques to control bleeding ICA.