Routine/regular screening is not undertaken in polytrauma patients.

Vertebral artery dissection can be clinically challenging to detect and diagnose due to its diverse presentation and the lack of uniform screening/guidelines.

The pathological process is more common in polytrauma and therefore there needs to be a high index of suspicion in this group of patients.

CT angiogram and/or Doppler and duplex ultrasonography should be used as a non-invasive screening tool in patients with significant traumatic injuries.

Early anticoagulation should ideally be the treatment, however, in traumatic injuries it is seldom used.