Upper Limb Peripheral Motor Deficits due to Extracranial Vertebral Artery Dissection

Abstract

We describe 2 patients with extracranial vertebral artery dissection presenting with left cervical pain and peripheral motor deficits in the left upper limb. Potential mechanisms of peripheral nervous system involvement in dissection of the extracranial vertebral artery include compression of the spinal nerves by an enlarged vertebral artery or ischemia of the anterior horn of the spinal cord or the spinal nerves by occlusion of a spinal radicular artery originating from the vertebral artery.