Vertebral Artery Dissection: A Rare Cause of Anterior Spinal Artery Syndrome

Anterior spinal artery syndrome is characterised by pain at the level of the lesion, paraparesis or quadriparesis, disturbed sensation of pain and temperature, and urinary incontinence. Spinal cord infarction usually originates from pathology of abdominal aorta, acute hypotension, embolism, coagulopathy, occlusion of radicular arteries or compression of spinal cord feeding arteries. In isolated cases, the vascular pathology of vertebral arteries may result in ischaemia of the territory of the anterior spinal artery. We report a case of spontanous rostral vertebral dissection with sudden onset of quadriparesis due to an extensive spinal ischaemia from C3 to T8.