Superficial temporal artery access for carotid artery stenting: A case report

Percutaneous intervention of patients who suffer from generalized vascular disease is often a great challenge due to the limited accessibility of the access gates. We discuss the case of a 66-year-old man who presented with critical right internal carotid artery (ICA) stenosis after previous hospitalization due to stroke. In addition to arteria lusoria, the patient had known bilateral femoral amputation, occlusion of the left ICA and significant three-vessel coronary artery disease. After unsuccessful common carotid artery (CCA) cannulation from the right distal radial artery access, we successfully performed the diagnostic angiography and the planned right ICA-CCA intervention using superficial temporal artery (STA) puncture. We showed that STA access can be used as an alternative and additional access site for diagnostic carotid artery angiography and intervention when standard access sites alone are insufficient.