Internal Carotid Artery Dissection Occurring During Intensive Practice With Wii® Video Sports Games

In the last 6 months, 2 patients have been admitted to our stroke center for ischemic stroke related to internal carotid artery (ICA) dissection that occurred during intensive video sports game practice with Wii® gaming system, the new generation of interactive wireless gaming console. Wii® has been widely distributed only since December 2006 and an increasing number of associated-injury cases have been reported in the literature since June 2007 (severe osteoarticular injuries involving shoulder or knee and hemothorax).1–4 These cases illustrate the intensity of some efforts performed during the practice of these video sports games. ### Case presentation. Our first case is a previously healthy 47-year-old woman who developed stroke due to ICA and middle cerebral artery (MCA) occlusion related to proximal ICA dissection during intense sports video game practice with the Wii® console system. She played a tennis video game for 3 hours consecutively, during which she experienced sudden severe left neck pain and unusual headache followed a few minutes later by right acute hemiplegia and aphasia (NIH Stroke Scale score = 15). In spite of partial MCA recanalization after intravenous thrombolysis (IVT), the patient was still dependent (modified …