Emergency cholecystectomy is less costly and more effective than delayed cholecystectomy. This approach is likely to be beneficial to patients in terms of improved health outcomes and to the healthcare provider owing to the reduced costs.
We present a case of a 50-year-old female who was diagnosed with an isolated right abducens nerve palsy and was found to have a persistent trigeminal artery (PTA). The trigeminal artery is the most common persistent embryological carotid-vertebrobasilar anastomosis. A PTA can be picked up as an incidental finding on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or angiography. It has been reported that a PTA can be found in 0.1 to 0.6% of all cerebral angiograms. PTA has been linked to several rare abnormalities such as vascular aneurysms and cranial nerve compression. Our patient presented with diplopia and was found to have a paresis of the right lateral rectus muscle consistent with a right abducens nerve palsy. MRI found a right-sided PTA indenting the ventral surface of the pons. This case investigates and highlights that neurovascular compression from a PTA can cause an isolated abducens nerve palsy. Further research is required to investigate if surgical intervention for non-aneurysmal PTA would be beneficial for patients.
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