Extracavernous arteriovenous fistulae. Report of five cases.

We report five cases of arteriovenous fistulae (AVFs) of the carotid system. Two were traumatic non penetrating injuries and involved the subarachnoid, extracavernous part of the intracranial internal carotid artery; two were spontaneous and involved the internal carotid artery in its extracranial portion; one was a spontaneous AVF of the ascending pharyngeal artery. All the symptoms due to these AVFs were not related to the location of the fistula, but to the congestive venous drainage. The revealing symptoms regressed and/or improved after transarterial detachable balloon embolisation that led to complete occlusion of the AVFs.