Multimodality management of vertebral artery injury sustained during cervical or craniocervical surgery.

Background: Iatrogenic vertebral artery (VA) injury is a rare but potentially devastating complication associated with cervical and craniocervical surgery.

Objective: To retrospectively evaluate treatment modalities and outcomes associated with iatrogenic VA injury.

Methods: Our institutional surgical database was queried for patients who underwent cervical or craniocervical surgery from January 1997 to August 2012.