[Late complications of closed injuries of the extracranial carotid artery. Apropos of 2 cases].

Closed injury with lesions of the great vessels of the neck are rare and usually due to high energy mechanisms with severe secondary deficit. 2 cases are reported, concerning young patients with relatively mild injury, neurological deficit not developing before 6 months after the traumatism in the first case and 8 months in the second. At this stage, the neurological signs were immediately severe, with cerebral infarction, leading to death in the first case. Pathological lesion of lesion of pseudo-anevrismal type, localised at the right carotid and subclavian artery bifurcation, was evidenced in the first case. In the second case, a bilateral intimal lesion of the carotid arteries at C1 level is illustrated on angiography. The mechanism of these lesions as well as the delayed manifestation of neurological deficits are discussed.