Bilateral traumatic internal carotid artery dissections: case report

Abstract

Bilateral internal carotid artery dissections after blunt cervicofacial trauma are rare, with 16 cases being previously published. Management is presumed to be an extension of the dominant therapy for unilateral dissection, that being anticoagulant therapy; however, bilateral stenoses engender questions of threat to total cerebral blood flow. We herein present a patient who suffered bilateral type B dissections and who then had progression of the process on anticoagulant therapy, resulting in an unusual carotid reconstruction.