[Penetrating injury of the common carotid artery: report of a case].

An eighty-year-old man slipped in the bathroom and received a deep slash wound in his left neck caused by a broken fragment of the bathroom door. A fragment of the glass stuck into his left neck. He was carried to our clinic after 20 minutes in a state of shock and showed right hemiparesis and aphasia. Following immediate orotracheal intubation and emergent therapy for shock, he was transferred to the operation theater for massive arterial bleeding from the wound. The left common carotid artery and internal jugular vein were exposed by extending the skin incision from the cervical wound along the anterior border of the left sternocleidomastoideus. The left common carotid artery and the internal jugular vein were simultaneously transected, and end-to-end anastomosis of the carotid artery was performed under the administration of 300 ml of Sendai Cocktail. The occlusion time of the left common carotid artery was approximately 50 minutes. Right hemiparesis and total aphasia did not change immediately after the surgery. The postsurgical CT scan showed an infarction in the posterior portion of the left middle and posterior cerebral arteries. However, after undergoing rehabilitation for a month, the patient could walk alone, and his aphasia improved. Many large series of penetrating injuries to the carotid artery were reported after World War II. Most casualties were younger males injured by gunshot. In middle cervical injury, the common carotid artery is the most vulnerable vessel, although other large vessels such as the external and internal carotid arteries as well as the internal jugular vein may be involved, often causing neurological deficits and shock.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)