Arteriovenous Fistula of Vertebral Vessels in the Neck

The occurrence of a fistula be tween the vertebral a r te ry and vein in the neck is ex t remely rare. Only ~0 cases have been found in a review of the l i terature3 -7 All of these fistulae occurred following some type of t r a u m a ; the ma jo r i ty were the result of war injuries. Two developed subsequen t to b lun t in jury of the neck; 1,2 1 resul ted f rom a percu taneous ar ter ial punc ture . 5 M o s t of the cases were repor ted e i ther pr ior to or immedia te ly following World W a r II , hence there are only cases verified by ang iography repor ted in t he l i terature2 '~ I t is conceivable t h a t some of the earlier cases may no t have been t rue ar te r iovenous fistulae b u t t raumat ic , false arterial aneurysms. I t is the purpose of this repor t to p resen t ~ cases of ar ter iovenous fistula of the ve r tebra l a r tery . B o t h were verified angiographical ly and successfully obl i te ra ted surgically.