Abstract

Vertebral artery dissection may lead to stroke. Medical therapy is usually the first line of treatment. The endovascular approach of medically refractory vertebral artery dissection may include numerous techniques, including coil occlusion of the parent vessel. Two cases are presented of medically refractory symptomatic vertebral artery dissections in which vessel coil occlusion was successfully achieved with a single long oversized coil. There were no periprocedural complications and both patients had excellent clinical and angiographic outcome and remained asymptomatic on follow-up. The use of a single long oversized coil in vessel sacrifice has not been described previously. It represents a safe, rapid and cost effective alternative to the current existing techniques for vessel sacrifice.