Endovascular management of complete vertebral artery dissection presenting with subarachnoid haemorrhage.

SUMMARY: Spontaneous vertebral artery (VA) dissection may involve the intradural segment of the VA and result in subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH). These lesions are frequently associated with recurrent SAH, and have a high mortality. Prior to the development of endovascular techniques the majority of these lesions were treated surgically. In cases where the dissection involved the posterior inferior cerebellar artery (PICA) origin surgery was associated with significant complications including recurrent SAH from retrograde VA flow into the dissected segment above the surgical clip. We describe two cases of complete VA dissection in which the entire intradural VA was sacrificed to prevent recurrent SAH. The first case tolerated planned left PICA occlusion without developing a significant neurological deficit. The second case had infarcted the right PICA territory at presentation.