Internal carotid artery trauma due to elongated styloid process – a review of case reports

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Stylocarotid syndrome is caused by the conflict between the styloid process and the vascular structures leading to carotid artery dissection (CAD) or compression. Being headache the most common initial symptom in patients with spontaneous CAD, eagle syndrome could be one explanation for some so-called spontaneous dissections since this symptom is also common in this syndrome. METHODS: Afrer analyzing the reported cases on Pubmed and Embase databases we divided the cases in compression and CAD groups ending up with completely different groups in terms of clinical presentation, management and follow-up. RESULTS: While management of compression group seems quite straightforward, the same is not true when CAD is present. Whether delayed styloidectomy after medical management plays a role in CAD, as it does for the compression group, is something to investigate