Two patients are presented, in whom right common carotid artery-internal jugular vein fistula had been patent for 12 years. These cases provide the longest reported follow-up of patients with surgically created carotid-jugular fistulas.
Marked cardiac hypertrophy, a systolic murmur in one patient, and arterial hypertension in the other, proved reversible following repair of the fistulas.
Alterations in circulatory dynamics before and after repair are correlated with established phenomena associated with arteriovenous fistulas of various size, duration, and anatomic location.