Coma et hémiplégie gauche post-traumatiques spontanément résolutifs

We relate here the case of a 31-year old woman who developed a bilateral dissection of the internal carotid arteries after a motor vehicle accident. After two weeks, she was transferred from Egypt where a hemiplegia due to a whiplash syndrome had been diagnosed. A bilateral dissection was suggested in this case by a color Doppler ultrasonography and was confirmed by a cerebral magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) followed by an angio-MRI. The patient's evolution was spontaneously favorable under intravenous anticoagulant treatment followed by oral therapy. Successive MRI exams showed a complete repermeabilisation of the two internal carotid arteries one month after the accident. The patient was discharged two months later with only a slight motor flexion deficit of the fourth left finger. The diagnostic modalities and management are discussed.