Retrograde thrombectomy of acute common carotid artery occlusion with mobile thrombus: illustrative cases.

Background: Acute embolic occlusion of the common carotid artery (CCA) alone is rare. However, once it occurs, recanalization is challenging due to the large volume of the clot, larger diameter of the CCA, and risk of procedure-related distal embolism into the intracranial arteries.

Observations: The authors report two cases of acute embolic occlusion of CCA alone, caused by a cardiac embolus trapped at the proximal end of a preexisting atherosclerotic plaque at the cervical carotid bifurcation.

Vertebral artery wall inflammation suspected as the cause of cryptogenic ischemic stroke developing during the recovery period of COVID-19.

Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) can cause acute ischemic stroke (AIS) due to large vessel occlusion (LVO). Some cases of COVID-19-related LVO are known to be resistant to mechanical thrombectomy and have different characteristics from non-COVID-19-related LVO. Inflammation of the occluded arterial wall is suspected as one of the causes of such differences, but the exact mechanism is not fully understood.