Neurovascular conflicts in the posterior fossa are conditions related to the presence, or even pressure, of vessels (arteries or veins) at the immediate contact of certain cranial nerves between the cerebellum (posterior part of the brain) and the brain stem or surrounding bony confinements of the skull. When this conflict has existed for a long period of time (usually since a patient birth) it exerts a continual impact on a nerve with subsequent changes in the myelin (outside sheath of a nerve) which serves to properly propagate a signal along the nerve. These nerves leave the brain stem (and, most of them, subsequently the skull) to subserve various functions throughout the body. These include: facial sensation, facial movement, hearing and balance, sensation around the ear, throat sensation and its motor function (voice production and swallowing), certain movements of the neck, among others.

​

Therefore, patients may suffer from a variety of conditions, including: facial pain (like trigeminal neuralgia), other facial and throat pains (glossopharyngeal neuralgia), ear pain only (geniculate neuralgia), intractable vertigo, facial muscle contractions (hemifacial spasm), neck muscle contractions (torticollis), or even hypertention (possibly from pressure on the brain stem itself by a vessel). Pathophysiology of many of those conditions is not very well understood, however, many treatment methods have been developed throughout the years.