Traumatic Injury of the Innominate Artery: A Case Report

The innominate artery (the right brachiocephalic artery) is an aortic branch. From this artery, right carotid artery and subclavian artery are bifurcated. This artery is short and relatively well protected by the bony thorax. However, injury of this artery is not uncommon. Several cases with innominate artery injuries have been documented involving blunt traumatic injury such as motor vehicle accidents or penetrating injuries. In those cases, it isn’t difficult to anticipate injuries to great vessels or determine approaches to investigate injuries, because of their trauma history, typical symptoms, and other associated injuries. However, recently we experience a case that it appeared to be no explicit blunt trauma history, his symptoms and signs were not specific, and after the postmortem examination, the innominate arterial injury was the only isolating injury. Thus, it wouldn’t have been easy to suspect this type of injury at the beginning. During autopsy procedure, looking for this injury pattern or searching for this type of injury might have also been neglected or missed. Therefore, we presented our unusual case with review of literature.