Watch Out For Vertebral Artery Injury

One rare complication of neck surgery is called vertebral artery injury (VAI). According to a journal report published in the April 1, 2008 edition of Spine Journal, certain procedures sometimes cause this potentially fatal problem. These procedures include the anterior cervical decompression, the posterior atlantoaxial transarticular screw fixation (aka the Magerl fixation), and some of the new surgical techniques that involve screws. The authors of the report surveyed doctors covering a total of 5641 cases of neck surgery. They found between 0.3% and 0.5% of patients with the anterior cervical decompression and up to 8.2% of those with the Magerl fixation were injured in this way. The report also noted that neck surgeries done by inexperienced surgeons had a higher rate of VAI. (This is called an iatrogenic injury.)

A VAI can be one of a number of types of injuries to the arteries found deep in the neck, which are located on the bone on either side of the vertebral bodies of the cervical spine. Along with neck surgery, chiropractic adjustments, venous catheterization, diagnostic cerebral angiography, percutaneous nerve block, and radiation therapy may also cause this injury. VAI can be “catastrophic” as one medical author puts it, so if something doesn’t feel right after you have one of these procedures, please don’t hesitate to speak up, and suggest (strongly) to your doctor you be checked for VAI. And remember, the VIA is likely an iatrogenic injury.

_{Sources:
Neo, Masashi MD, PhD; Fujibayashi, Shunsuke MD, PhD; Miyata, Masahiko MD; Takemoto, Mitsuru MD, PhD; Nakamura, Takashi MD, PhD. Vertebral Artery Injury During Cervical Spine Surgery: A Survey of More than 5600 Operations. Spine. April 1, 2008.
Inamasu J, Guiot BH. Iatrogenic vertebral artery injury. Acta Neurol Scand. 2005 Dec.}