Taste dysfunction from carotid artery dissection

There exist only a few reports on loss of taste sensation caused by dissect ion of the internal carotid artery. We describe a patient with carotid diss ection and ipsilateral ageusia in the anterior two thirds of the tongue, pr esumably from a lesion of the chorda tympani. Ageusia in carotid dissection is explained by the close anatomic relation of the internal carotid artery and the chorda tympani in the short petrous bone. However since extension of the space-occupying, dissecting intramural hematoma into the carotid cha nnel as in our patient occurs infrequently - a probable precondition for th e chorda tympani lesion - loss of taste is accordingly very rare. Reduced p erfusion of the vasa nervorum can be excluded as another cause, because the chorda tympani is supplied only from branches of the external carotid arte ry.