Spontaneous Dissection of Carotid and Vertebral Arteries

Abstract

Jentzer (1954) is the first author to have reported a case of spontaneous dissection of the carotid artery. Since then, more detailed studies have described this pathology (Bostrom and Liliequist 1967; Ehrenfeld and Wylie 1976; Fisher et al. 1978; Mokri et al. 1979; Anderson et al. 1980; Friedmann et al. 1980; Bradac et al. 1981a) which have helped to widen the understanding of the clinical and angiographic aspects of this disease. Spontaneous dissection is today a well-recognized pathology that is responsible for stroke in many cases. Its incidence is reported to be 2.5–3 cases of carotid dissection and 1–1.5 cases of vertebral dissection per 100,000 persons yearly (Schievink 2001; Menon and Norris 2008; Redekop 2008). Young and middle-aged patients are predominantly affected. Multiple lesions occur about 50% of the cases (Pelkonen et al. 2003; Bejot et al. 2014).