Dissecting aneurysm of the peripheral posterior inferior cerebellar artery

Dissecting aneurysms of intracranial posterior circulation have recently been shown to be less uncommon than previously thought. However, those involving the posterior inferior cerebellar artery (PICA) and not vertebral artery at all are extremely rare. We report here a case of a patient with a dissecting aneurysm of the lateral medullary segment of PICA which presented as subarachnoid haemorrhage. The aneurysm was treated by trapping surgery and the distant PICA was anastomosed to the occipital artery. The patient showed a slight ataxia immediately after surgery but recovered fully. Recovery from immediately postoperative cerebellar symptoms due to intra-operative ischemia seemed to be due largely to recovery of flow in the region of cortical branches of PICA.