Vertebral Artery Injury Presenting with Signs of Middle Cerebral Artery Occlusion

Abstract

Therapeutic manipulation of the neck has been shown to produce injury to the vertebral artery. The clinical syndromes produced by this arterial insufficiency generally reflect dysfunction of the brainstem or cerebellum. The authors present a case of such injury that presented with clinical findings, namely, hemiparesis and aphasia, suggestive of involve ment of the dominant middle cerebral artery. These findings may have been the result of disruption of flow through the posterior cerebral artery to the thalamus, internal capsule, and cerebral peduncles.