Trousseau's syndrome in the head and neck.

Thromboses in Trousseau's syndrome are typically confined to the vascular system of the extremities and viscera. The authors report a case of sequential bilateral internal and external jugular-vein thromboses secondary to this paraneoplastic hypercoagulable state. The etiologies of commonly encountered head and neck venous thromboses are infection, trauma, and obstruction. This article purports that head and neck venous thromboses without a proximal inflammatory or mechanical cause may be the initial manifestation of an occult malignancy. Upon establishing the presence of a hypercoagulable state, further evaluation may lead to the early diagnosis of such an occult malignancy.