How serious is an arterial dissection?

In severe cases, arterial dissection can be fatal. Arterial dissections are treated by the UCSF Pediatric Stroke and Cerebrovascular Disease Center, the only comprehensive cerebrovascular disease center for children in the country, staffed by the world’s leading experts in pediatric stroke and cerebrovascular disease.

What are the symptoms of arterial dissection?

What are the symptoms of carotid dissection?

• Headache.
• Scalp pain.
• Eye pain.
• Neck pain.
• One eye with a droopy lid and small pupil (partial Horner syndrome)
• Weakness or numbness on one side of your body.
• Having trouble understanding speech or speaking.
• Pulsing sound in an ear.

How long can you live with a vertebral artery dissection?

For patients who do survive the initial acute extracranial dissection, the prognosis is good with complete recovery in nearly 80-90% of patients. However, at least 10% will develop recurrent attacks, a major stroke, or death.

Is cervical artery dissection fatal?

For spontaneous cervical artery dissection, the mortality is less than 5 percent. The risk for lasting neurological impairment from the disease is considerably higher. More than half of patients with spontaneous cervical artery dissection develop a stroke, sometimes delayed by hours or days.

Why is it important to know about craniocervical artery dissection?

Craniocervical artery dissection is a potentially disabling yet probably underrecognized condition that often occurs in young and middle-aged adults. Accurate and prompt diagnosis of this condition is crucial because timely and appropriate therapy can significantly reduce the risk of stroke and long-term sequelae.

Can a dissected cervical artery cause cerebral ischemia?

However, recent data show that cervical artery dissection is a possible cause of cerebral ischemia in the elderly and should also be considered in the diagnostic investigation in this patient group (, 4 ).

Is it possible to diagnose extracranial vertebral artery dissection?

The sensitivity for detecting extracranial vertebral artery dissection was 75% in a study that examined 20 cases with color Doppler US (,34). The distal V2 and V3 segments cannot always be satisfactorily imaged; therefore, diagnosis is based on indirect hemodynamic signs.

Why are extracranial segments more likely to undergo dissection?

The extracranial segments of the carotid and vertebral arteries are much more likely to undergo dissection than their intracranial segments. This discrepancy may be explained by their greater mobility and the potential for them to be injured by contact with bony structures (cervical spine and styloid process) (, 1 ).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RorCyG6JUAk