Cervical vessel injury after blunt trauma

Wallenberg's syndrome with delayed onset after cervical spine fracture: a case report.

“…The incidence is postulated to be between 3% and 10%. 2 In a retrospective study Parent and coworkers reviewed some 640 patients sustaining fractures of the cervical spine. Of these, 96 had facet involvement and in only five was injury of the vertebral artery diagnosed by initial major neurological deficits such as cerebellar infarction, cortical blindness, or pontine infarction, which have been documented by postmortem examination in two cases.3 All these patients had cervical fractures located at C5-C6 and in one case in combination with a fracture at C6-C7.…”

Blunt Carotid Injury in Children

“…Complete arterial disruption resulting from blunt inju ry generally occurs at the skull base and has a uniformly dismal prognosis with death occurring quickly from naso pharyngeal hemorrhage [6,7], Pseudoaneurysms have been successfully managed, depending upon location, by excision/repair, ligation with or without bypass, and/or anticoagulation [6,8,9]. Carotid-cavernous fistulae are treated with great success using endovascular techniques [8].…”

State of the art: noninvasive imaging and management of neurovascular trauma

“…Along with an increasing incidence of blunt trauma, a concomitant increase in the frequency of neurovascular injuries has been described. Blunt trauma is responsible for approximately 10% of all cervical vessel injuries, but the associated death and neurological dysfunction have been reported to be as high as 80% in those suffering from blunt carotid injuries [10]. Blunt vertebral arterial injuries, once thought to be innocuous, have been attributed to 24% of posterior circulation strokes and 8% of deaths in one study [11].…”