Treatment of cervical internal carotid artery spontaneous dissection with pseudoaneurysm and unilateral lower cranial nerves palsy by two silk flow diverters.

Internal carotid artery (ICA) lesions in the parapharyngeal space (a dissection and a pseudoaneurysm) may present as isolated lower cranial nerves (IX, X, XI, and XII) palsy (Collet-Sicard syndrome). Some arteriopathies such as fibromuscular dysplasia and tortuosity make a vessel predisposed to dissection. Extreme vessel tortuosity makes the treatment by a stent graft impossible. Two Silk stents were used in a 46 year-old man with left lower cranial nerves (IX-XII) palsy for the treatment of left ICA spontaneous dissection with pseudoaneurysm. A follow-up angiogram 5 months later confirmed pseudoaneurysm thrombosis and patency of the left ICA. The patient recovered completely from the deficits.