Carotid artery dissection dissection is thought to be more commonly caused by severe violent trauma to the head and/or neck. An estimated 0.67% of patients admitted to the hospital after major motor vehicle accidents were found to have blunt carotid injury, including intimal dissections, pseudoaneurysms, thromboses, or fistulas. Of these, 76% had intimal dissections, pseudoaneurysms, or a combination of the two. The probable mechanism of injury for most internal carotid injuries is rapid deceleration, with resultant hyperextension and rotation of the neck, which stretches the internal carotid artery over the upper cervical vertebrae, producing an intimal tear. After such an injury, the patient
Carotid sinus unstable, predispose to ischemic strokes and transient ischemic attacks, carotid endarterectomies are frequently done for prophylaxis. The carotid sinus can be oversensitive to manual stimulation, a condition known as carotid sinus hypersensitivity, carotid sinus syndrome or carotid sinus syncope, in which manual stimulation causes large changes in heart rate and/or blood pressure. This classically presents as a patient who has "fainted" (actually a presyncope) on several occasions while shaving, or in some other way coming into contact with their carotid sinus. Carotid sinus syndrome is a temporary loss of consciousness that sometimes accompanies convulsive seizures because of the intensity of