Vertebral artery aneurysm – a unique hazard of head banging by heavy metal rockers

A 15-year-old drummer in a neighborhood rock music band suffered a traumatic true aneurysm of the cervical vertebral artery from violent head and neck motion. He underwent excision of the aneurysm after distal and proximal ligation of the artery. He is neurologically normal I year after surgery. The mechanisms of injury caused by extremes of cervical motion, as well as 5 previously reported cases of extracranial vertebral artery aneurysm from closed trauma, are discussed. Excision of vertebral artery aneurysms in patients with emboli from a mural thrombus is recommended. The consequences of vertebral artery ligation and the indications for distal reconstruction are discussed.