Vertebral Artery Dissection Presenting as Acute Cerebrovascular Accident

Vertebral artery dissection is a lesser known but significant cause of stroke in young, healthy people. Given its infrequency of presentation, emergency physicians may not always recognize its common symptoms—vertigo, diplopia, ataxia, and dysarthria—as a stroke. In this case report, we describe a patient with vertebral artery dissection presenting with atypical symptoms and discuss the epidemiology, risk factors, presentation, clinical examination findings, imaging modalities, and treatment of this disease.