[Traumatic occlusion of the internal carotid artery].

A COMPIEETE review of published eases of internal carotid artery occlusions in children has been given by Fischer and Friedmann in 19561 and by Wisoff and Rothballer in 1961.2, 3 Frantzen, Jacobsen, and Tlierkelsell in 19614 reported three cases of traumatic occlusioil of the internal artery in children. The cause of a traumatic occlusion of the internal carotid artery might be a direct lesioni of the arterial wall due to a trauma involving the neck. When thrombosis occurs after trauma to the head, an intimal lesion caused by stretehing of the artery or by its impinging upon the transverse processes of the cervical vertebrae might be responsible for the thrombotic occlusion. As in other types of carotid artery occlusionl, various forms of conservative treatmenit with anticoagulants, vasodilator drugs, and stellate block have been used in reported cases. From the reports on spontaneous or traumatic internal carotid artery occlusion, no final conclusion can be drawn as to whether the natural course of the disease is influenced by aiiy type of treatment. Thus King and Langworthy in 19415 and Shapiro in 19526 reported good results in two patieilts to whom nio treatment was given. In one of three cases reported by Stevens7 the hemiparesis subsided following treatment with anticoagulants and papaverine. In the cases of Frantzen et al.4 where anticoagulant therapy was given to only one of the three patients, all patieints showed more or less the same residual syilptomns.