Closed cervicocranial trauma, "false aneurysm" of the internal carotid artery and brain infarction.

A 17-year-old man developed acute hemiparesis 6 months after a motor cycle accident. In the accident he had a closed trauma on the contralateral side of the head and the neck, with multiple bone fractures. Aortocervical angiography, performed after the infarction, revealed a 2.5 cm long aneurysmatic dilatation in the internal carotid artery, the presumably source of embolic infarction. This and the 24 other cases gathered from the literature support the notion that closed neck trauma may create "false aneurysm" which again may cause neurological deficits.