Raeder's and Collet-Sicard syndromes. Acute cranial nerve paresis as a symptom of internal carotid artery dissection

Acute cerebral nerve paresis can be caused in many different ways. One of t he more rare causes of paresis of one or more neural pathways is dissection of the internal carotid artery. Early diagnosis is important, even with at ypical symptoms, since prompt anticoagulative therapy can hinder stroke fro m embolism due to the dissection. We report on two patients with Raeder's s yndrome and Collet-Sicard syndrome resulting from dissection of the interna l carotid artery. Besides the cranial and caudal nerves involved in our stu dy, loss of function has also been reported with the sixth to eighth crania l nerves, so that any painful, sudden cranial nerve deficiency can indicate possible carotid dissection.