[Percutaneous transluminal angioplasty of extracranial vertebral artery stenosis--a case report]

Abstract

Due to improvement in intravascular therapeutic procedures significant stenoses of vertebral and basilar arteries can presently be treated by means of percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA). The reported case was a 34-year-old man with symptomatic stenosis of the distal left vertebral artery and hypoplastic right vertebral artery. The patient underwent PTA and the lesion was sufficiently dilated. No complications occurred during or after the procedure. After a year duplex Doppler follow-up examination showed normal blood flow and patency of both vertebral arteries. PTA may prove to be a useful therapeutic option in patients with symptoms of vertebro-basilar insufficiency.