Emergency Superficial Temporal Artery-Superior Cerebellar Artery Bypass for the Refractory Vertebrobasilar Insufficiency with Partial Mastoidectomy.

Background: Although it is well-known that vertebrobasilar insufficiency (VBI) because of atherothrombosis with bilateral vertebral artery (VA) occlusion is resistant to medical treatment from the acute to subacute stages, the most appropriate treatment for progressive infarction at these stages remains unclear. Here, we described a patient with VBI who underwent emergency superficial temporal artery-superior cerebellar artery (STA-SCA) bypass under partial mastoidectomy after confirming mismatch between diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) findings and clinical symptoms. The patient showed a good outcome with this approach.