A PENETRATING INJURY OF THE EXTRACRANIAL VERTEBRAL ARTERY - A CASE-REPORT

Penetrating injury to the vertebral artery is a very rare accident and no case except ours has been reported to date in Japan. We reported a case of successful treatment of a penetrating injury by a nail to the left vertebral artery with the use of interventional radiologic procedure. A 27-year-old man was admitted to our hospital with a complaint of penetrating injury in his neck. Left vertebral angiography revealed that a nail had penetrated into the vertebral artery at the C6 level. Considering the possibility of thrombus formation around the metallic foreign body and the risk of uncontrollable bleeding, we performed embolization of the injured vertebral artery with Interlocking Detachable Coil.