Case

A 23 year old is playing sports and receives a deep laceration from a broken hockey stick. The laceration is approximately 1 inch long, on the right side of their face just lateral to the nose angling to the zygomatic arch.  The wound is gushing blood and painful to touch. 

Question 1/2 - Which vessel(s) do you think have been injured?

Click on your selected option(s) below  (correct = 1, over-thinking = 2+)

Next Question

Incorrect. The internal carotid artery supplies the brain, there are no extra-cranial branches to the internal carotid artery.  

Incorrect. The external carotid artery courses up the neck from the common carotid bifurcation ending deep to the mandible where it divides into the maxillary and superficial temporal arteries.

While the external carotid artery supplies blood to the superficial face, the external carotid artery itself was not injured here.

Incorrect. The facial artery arises from the external carotid artery and crosses the ramus of the mandible and splits approximately at the corner of the mouth into the inferior labial, superior labial, and angular arteries.

While the facial artery supplies the inured area with blood, it is a branch of the facial artery that is injured not the facial artery itself.

Incorrect. The maxillary artery is the deep artery of the face traveling deep to the mandible. This would not be at risk from a shallow injury as the vessel is protected by the bone of the mandible. 

Correct!  The angular artery courses alongside the nose through the region of the injury and is most likely the vessel transected and bleeding.

Incorrect. The superficial temporal artery arises as a terminal branch of the external carotid artery (along with the other terminal branch of the maxillary artery). The superficial temporal artery courses along the lateral aspect of the face just anterior to the ear, thus the 1 inch injury would not be long enough to reach this vessel or its branches.