Traumatic pseudoaneurysm of the superficial temporal artery.

Pseudoaneurysms of the superficial temporal artery (STA) are a relatively rare disease entity. Only less than 200 cases of STA pseudoaneurysm have been documented in the literature since Bartholin reported the first case of the STA pseudoaneurysm in 1740 . However, the authors encountered three cases during a 3-year span, which suggests that STA pseudoaneurysms may be more common than the previous literature shows. And the most frequent causes of peripheral traumatic pseudoaneurysm are closed head trauma(62%), penetrating wounds(27%), and iatrogenic trauma (11%). So any surgeon treating patients with head and facial trauma should be aware of this unusual lesion. Here, we report three cases of the STA pseudoaneurysm, which are caused by the head trauma.