Occasionally, patients have aggressive tumors, aggressive infections or certain post-traumatic or post-surgical conditions that may require sacrifice (deliberate occlusion) of one of the arteries of the head and neck. Because the cerebral circulation has connections between the front and back and right and left, such deliberate sacrifice usually results in no consequence to the patient. However, before vessel sacrifice, a temporary balloon occlusion test is performed if possible.
The artery sacrifice procedure involves the deliberate occlusion of one of the carotid or vertebral arteries by deployment of numerous coils and/or vascular plugs into the blood vessel lumen until complete obstruction of flow is achieved.
