Medical Sciences Commons^™

Craniocervical Arterial Dissection, Joseph Weisenberger

Nursing Student Class Projects (Formerly MSN)

The annual incidence for spontaneous carotid artery dissection (CAD) ranges from 2 to 3/100,000 patients and is even lower for a spontaneous vertebral artery dissection (VAD). Furthermore, there is only a .08% - .04% chance for the incidence of a traumatic dissection (TD), of the entire trauma population (Mortazvi, Verma, Tubbs, Harrigan, 2011). However, despite these low levels, CAD/VADs pose a serious threat to a patient’s plan of care if not identified and treated early.