Occipital neuralgia is a rare pain syndrome characterized by periodic lancinating pain involving the occipital nerve complex. We present a unique case of entrapment of the greater occipital nerve (GON) within the semispinalis capitis, which was thought to be the cause of occipital neuralgia. A 66-year-old woman with refractory left occipital neuralgia revealed an abnormally low-loop of the left...

In his 1948 headache book, Harold Wolff described 3 types of occipital neuralgia.“The first and most common is characterized by a long-lasting (day, weeks, or months), more or less sustained aching of low or moderate intensity. It is commonly bilateral but may be unilateral. It is associated with stiffness of the muscles of the neck, tender points, often with muscle nodules, and with head tilti...

Two angiographic instances of anomalous external carotid artery (ECA) and internal carotid artery (ICA) anastomosis are described, each occurring at the C2-3 level and bearing remnants of proximal ICA. The ICA remnant of one patient (identifiable immediately upon bifurcation of the common carotid artery) was hypoplastic, and that of the other patient was an occluded arterial stump. These featur...

A 51-year-old man experienced the onset of positionally dependent neurologic changes . When he turned his head to the left and extended his neck for longer than 3 sec he became dizzy and experienced a sensation of "numbness" over his right body, including his face. This was accompanied by loss of motor control of the right body. He had some blurring of vision during these episodes but no loss o...

We report a patient with dissection of the bilateral intracranial vertebral artery (VA) that did not present any symptoms other than occipital headache, which was probably associated with sleeping overnight in a car seat with unsteady head position. Although cerebral angiography revealed extensive dissection of the bilateral VA after branching of the posterior inferior cerebral artery, retrogra...

The external carotid artery and its branches were investigated in hens by an acrylic plastic injection method. The common carotid artery of hens bifurcated into the internal and external carotid arteries at the level of the second cervical vertebra. The external carotid artery advanced antero-superiorly within the platysma, stylohyoid, and occipitomandibular muscles at the postero-lateral side ...

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