What is a dissected vertebral artery?
Vertebral artery dissection (VAD) is a flap-like tear of the inner lining of the vertebral artery, which is located in the neck and supplies blood to the brain. After the tear, blood enters the arterial wall and forms a blood clot, thickening the artery wall and often impeding blood flow.
What is a dissected carotid artery?
A carotid dissection is a tear in one of your carotid arteries. These are a set of 2 arteries at the sides of your neck. They supply blood to your brain. A dissection is a tear of the inner layer of the wall of an artery. The tear lets blood get in between the layers of the wall and separate them.
What are dissected arteries?
Arterial dissections happen when the inside wall of your artery tears. Blood gets in the tear and separates the layers of the artery wall. This dissection creates a weak spot that can lead to a life-threatening leak. An aortic dissection is when you get a tear in the wall of your aorta.
What is intracranial arterial dissection?
Introduction. Cerebral arterial dissection is defined as a hematoma in the wall of a cervical or an intracranial artery. Cerebral arterial dissection causes arterial stenosis, occlusion, and aneurysm, leading in turn to brain infarction and subarachnoid hemorrhage.
How do you treat a vertebral artery dissection?
First-line treatment for cervical artery dissection usually is antiplatelet agents (such as aspirin) or anti-coagulation to prevent the formation of blood clots. Antiplatelet drugs such as aspirin or clopidogrel may used alone or in combination.
What causes a dissected artery?
What causes an arterial dissection? Arterial dissection can occur as a result of head or neck trauma (either serious or minor), but sometimes it has no identifiable cause.
What causes an artery to dissect?
How common is artery dissection?
The annual incidence of symptomatic spontaneous internal carotid artery dissection is 2.5-3 per 100,000. The incidence of carotid artery dissection as a result of blunt injuries (mainly high-speed motor vehicle accidents) ranges from less than 1% to 3%.
How long does it take for a dissected artery to heal?
Healing usually takes 3-6 months, and the incidence of contralateral dissection is higher in these patients than in the general population. When the condition is diagnosed early, the prognosis is usually good.