Endovascular treatment of a ruptured aneurysm of the inferior thyroid artery. Case report and literature review

Abstract

Aneurysms of the inferior thyroid artery are rare. The natural course of these aneurysms seems to be unfavourable, why aneurysm exclusion is recommended in the literature. Open surgical repair is complex why endovascular exclusion seems to be an appealing alternative. We present a patient who developed dysphagia and respiratory distress caused by a ruptured aneurysm of the right inferior thyroid artery. Successful coil embolization of the aneurysm is described along with a review of the literature. Despite the very rare data of these aneurysms, all reported cases of endovascular treatment (n=3) showed favourable results, therefore aneurysm embolization seems to be a feasible and safe alternative to open surgery, especially in emergency cases.