Choucha A, Barraque T, Meyer M, Dufour H, Farah K, Fuentes S. Fractured cervical spine, dissected vertebral artery, and life-threatening stroke: A challenging case report and literature review.
Neurochirurgie 2024:101561. [PMID:
38621474 DOI:
10.1016/j.neuchi.2024.101561]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/20/2024] [Revised: 04/02/2024] [Accepted: 04/09/2024] [Indexed: 04/17/2024]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION
Vertebral artery injury (VAI) following blunt trauma can lead to acute or delayed life-threatening posterior fossa ischemic stroke. Its management raises controversial issues and is still open to debate.
MATERIAL & METHOD
We report the case of a 48-year-old male who presented a life-threatening posterior circulation ischemic stroke, secondary to a vertebral artery dissection caused by a cervical spine fracture. This case was successfully managed through intravenous thrombolysis and endovascular thrombectomy followed by antiplatelet therapy and an anterior cervical discectomy and fusion. At the one-year follow-up, the patient had no persisting deficit and was back working as a policeman.
CONCLUSION
Rapid management of patients with dramatic clinical presentation can lead to full recovery. Implications include a systematic screening of blunt trauma VAI through computed tomography angiography when dealing with high-risk cervical spine fractures; patients harboring both a cervical spine fracture and a VAI must be transferred to a tertiary referral hospital able to deal both with strokes and cervical spine surgery to ensure responsiveness in case of stroke.
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