Will Temporal Artery Ligation Result In The Subsequent Appearance of New Arteries?

Q: Dr. Eppley, I have prominent bulging temporal arteries bilaterally. My regular plastic surgeon is against arterial ligation in the area of my temples, out of fear that once one artery is ligated, another will pop up in its place, and thus conveyed to me that there is no surgical solution to bulging temporal arteries (the squiggly pulsing arteries on either temple, they have been confirmed to be arterial.) id love to schedule a consult with one of you surgeons. I am in California so I would need to meet virtually or over the telephone, but I would gladly make the trip to your facility if it is determined that there is a probability of success in treating this issue. It is very difficult to find a surgeon to perform surgery on this area. Thank you!

A:In my extensive experience with temporal artery ligation surgery I have never seen other new vessels appear after such ligation surgery. So your plastic surgeon’s theory (and that is what it is when the surgeon has never actually performed the procedure) is unfounded. This is undoubtably because the ligations are done at multiple levels along the course of the artery. The actual risk of the surgery is recurrence along the existing arterial pathway, not the appearance of new vessels. But even recurrence of any portion of the artery is very uncommon, again due to the multi-level ligation approach.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana