Endovascular treatment with Guglielmi detachable coils for basilar artery trunk aneurysms: clinical experience with 41 aneurysms in 39 patients

2001 ◽  
Vol 95 (4) ◽  
pp. 624-632 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ken Uda ◽  
Yuichi Murayama ◽  
Y. Pierre Gobin ◽  
Gary R. Duckwiler ◽  
Fernando Viñuela

Object. The authors present a retrospective analysis of their clinical experience in the endovascular treatment of basilar artery (BA) trunk aneurysms with Guglielmi detachable coils (GDCs). Methods. Between April 1990 and June 1999, 41 BA trunk aneurysms were treated in 39 patients by inserting GDCs. Twenty-seven patients presented with subarachnoid hemorrhage, six had intracranial mass effect, and in six patients the aneurysms were found incidentally. Eighteen lesions were BA trunk aneurysms, 13 were BA—superior cerebellar artery aneurysms, four were BA—anterior inferior cerebellar artery aneurysms, and six were vertebrobasilar junction aneurysms. Thirty-five patients (89.7%) had excellent or good clinical outcomes; procedural morbidity and mortality rates were 2.6% each. Thirty-six aneurysms were selectively occluded while preserving the parent artery, and in five cases the parent artery was occluded along with the aneurysm. Immediate angiographic studies revealed complete or nearly complete occlusion in 35 aneurysms (85.4%). Follow-up angiograms were obtained in 29 patients with 31 aneurysms; the mean follow-up period was 17 months. No recanalization was observed in the eight completely occluded aneurysms. In 19 lesions with small neck remnants, seven (36.8%) had further thrombosis, three (15.8%) remained anatomically unchanged, and nine (47.3%) had recanalization caused by coil compaction. In one patient (2.6%) the aneurysm rebled 8 years after the initial embolization. Conclusions. In this clinical series the authors show that the GDC placement procedure is valuable in the therapeutic management of BA trunk aneurysms. The endovascular catheterization of these lesions tends to be relatively simple, in contrast with more complex neurosurgical approaches. Endosaccular obliteration of these aneurysms also decreases the possibility of unwanted occlusion of perforating arteries to the brainstem.

1997 ◽  
Vol 87 (3) ◽  
pp. 374-380 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas A. Nichols ◽  
Robert D. Brown ◽  
Kent R. Thielen ◽  
Fredric B. Meyer ◽  
John L. D. Atkinson ◽  
...  

✓ The authors report their experience using electrolytically detachable coils for the treatment of ruptured posterior circulation aneurysms. Twenty-six patients with 28 posterior circulation aneurysms were treated. All patients were referred for endovascular treatment by experienced vascular neurosurgeons. Patients underwent follow-up angiography immediately after treatment, 1 to 6 weeks posttreatment, and 6 months posttreatment. Six-month follow-up angiograms obtained in 19 patients with 20 aneurysms demonstrated that 18 (90%) of the 20 aneurysms were 99 to 100% occluded, one aneurysm (5%) was approximately 90% occluded, and one aneurysm (5%) was approximately 75% occluded. The patient with the aneurysm that was approximately 75% occluded needed additional treatment, consisting of parent artery balloon occlusion, and was considered a treatment failure (3.8% of patients). There was one treatment-associated mortality (3.8%) but no treatment-associated serious neurological or nonneurological morbidity in the patient group. There was no recurrent aneurysm rupture during treatment or during the mean 27-month follow-up period. Endovascular treatment of ruptured posterior circulation aneurysms with electrolytically detachable coils can be accomplished with low morbidity and mortality rates. The primary goal of treatment—preventing recurrent aneurysm—can be achieved over the short term. Endovascular coil occlusion will play an important role in the treatment of ruptured posterior circulation aneurysms, particularly if long-term efficacy in preventing recurrent aneurysm hemorrhage can be documented.


1999 ◽  
Vol 90 (5) ◽  
pp. 843-852 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerhard Bavinzski ◽  
Monika Killer ◽  
Andreas Gruber ◽  
Andrea Reinprecht ◽  
Cordell E. Gross ◽  
...  

Object. The authors retrospectively analyzed the results of their 6-year experience in the treatment of basilar artery (BA) bifurcation aneurysms by using Guglielmi detachable coils (GDCs).Methods. This analysis involved 45 BA tip aneurysms in 16 men and 29 women who ranged in age from 23 to 78 years (mean 50 years). Seventy-five percent of the aneurysms had ruptured and 25% remained unruptured. Of the group whose aneurysms hemorrhaged, 14 patients were Hunt and Hess Grade I or II and 20 were Hunt and Hess Grades III to V; 32 patients were treated within 2 weeks of their subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). Initially, treatment with GDCs was limited to poor-grade high-risk patients who refused surgery or patients in whom surgery proved unsuccessful. Later in the study, good-grade patients with narrow-necked aneurysms were also treated using GDCs.The length of clinical follow up ranged from 1 to 72 months (average 27.4 months) in the 37 surviving patients. In 33 of the 45 aneurysms treated with coil placement, good to excellent results were achieved. There were 12 poor results (27%) including one in a patient from the non-SAH group who suffered a thrombotic complication due to an underlying vasculitis. Eight deaths were recorded in this group of 45 patients. One of these deaths was caused by a complication related to anesthesia, one by unknown causes, and six resulted from complications of the disease. One patient rebled on the 2nd day after the endovascular procedure. The mortality and permanent morbidity rates directly related to the intervention were 2.2% and 4.4%, respectively.Angiographic studies obtained immediately postintervention demonstrated 99 to 100% occlusion in 30 (67%) of the aneurysms; nine (20%) were more than 90% occluded; and six (13%) were less than 90% occluded by the GDCs. Follow-up angiograms were obtained in 31 patients between 2 and 72 months after coil placement. Nineteen (61%) of the follow-up angiograms revealed stable results (that is, no change from initial treatment). Twelve of the 31 showed coil compaction, but only eight of these lesions could accept additional coils.In large aneurysms recanalization was seen in 57%, and some of the larger lesions required as many as four embolizations (mean 1.7) to achieve optimal occlusion. When small-necked aneurysms were analyzed as a subset, a stable angiographic result was seen in 92%.Conclusions. Use of GDCs led to excellent clinical and angiographic results in the majority of patients with BA tip aneurysms included in this limited follow-up study. Rebleeding was encountered in one of the 34 previously ruptured BA aneurysms treated with GDCs, and no hemorrhages have been documented in the 11 unruptured aneurysms treated with GDCs in this series. Long-term follow-up studies are necessary before it is possible to compare adequately the treatment of aneurysms with coil placement to the gold standard of aneurysm clipping.


1999 ◽  
Vol 90 (5) ◽  
pp. 853-856 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ikuya Yamaura ◽  
Eiichi Tani ◽  
Masayuki Yokota ◽  
Atsuhisa Nakano ◽  
Masahiro Fukami ◽  
...  

Object. Surgical or endovascular occlusion of the parent artery proximal to an aneurysm has been recommended for treatment of dissecting aneurysms of the intracranial posterior circulation. However, dissecting aneurysms may rupture even after proximal occlusion because distal progression of thrombus is necessary to occlude the dissecting aneurysm completely, and this may be delayed by the presence of retrograde flow. In this article the authors present their experience in treating six patients with ruptured dissecting aneurysms.Methods. The authors report on six patients with a ruptured dissecting aneurysm in the posterior fossa who were successfully treated by endovascular occlusion of the aneurysm by using Guglielmi detachable coils. The procedure was particularly aimed at occluding the dissected site.Conclusions. At the present time, endovascular occlusion of the dissected site is a safe, minimally invasive, and reliable treatment for dissecting aneurysms when a test occlusion is tolerated and adequate collateral circulation is present.


1998 ◽  
Vol 89 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph M. Eskridge ◽  
Joon K. Song ◽  
_ _

Object. To assess the safety and efficacy of aneurysm embolization performed using Guglielmi detachable coils (GDCs), the authors reviewed the results of a cohort of 150 patients with either ruptured (83 patients) or unruptured (67 patients) basilar tip aneurysms treated with these detachable platinum coil devices in the early part of the United States multicenter GDC clinical trial that led to Food and Drug Administration approval for the device. Methods. The most common presentation in this cohort of patients was headache (53%). All patients were entered into the trial after neurosurgical assessment excluded them as candidates for surgical clipping of their aneurysms. Greater than 90% coil packing was achieved in 75% of the patients. For those patients in whom follow-up information was available, the mean angiographic and clinical evaluation follow-up time for 61 patients with ruptured aneurysms was 13.7 months (range 0–43 months) and that for the 49 patients with unruptured aneurysms was 9.8 (range 0–40 months). Conservative mortality rates included up to 23% for the ruptured aneurysm group and up to 12% for the unruptured aneurysm group; the rebleeding rate for treated ruptured aneurysms was up to 3.3% and the bleeding rate for unruptured aneurysms up to 4.1%. Permanent deficits due to stroke in patients with ruptured or unruptured aneurysms occurred in up to 5% and 9%, respectively. Vasospasm occurred in 8% of the patients; it was associated with two deaths. Periprocedural mortality was 2.7% (four patients with ruptured aneurysms). Conclusions. Detachable platinum coil embolization is a promising treatment for ruptured basilar tip aneurysms that are not surgically clippable; in selected patients it offers lower incidences of morbidity and mortality compared with conservative medical management. The role of this procedure in unruptured basilar tip aneurysms is unclear with less supportive results. More long-term follow-up evaluation is necessary and results are expected to improve.


1998 ◽  
Vol 89 (6) ◽  
pp. 956-961 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim W. Malisch ◽  
Guido Guglielmi ◽  
Fernando Viñuela ◽  
Gary Duckwiler ◽  
Y. Pierre Gobin ◽  
...  

Object. Embolization of intracranial aneurysms by using Guglielmi detachable coils (GDCs) is proving to be a safe method of protecting aneurysms from rupture. Occasionally, patients with unruptured intracranial aneurysms present with symptoms related to the aneurysm's mass effect on either the brain parenchyma or cranial nerves. In the present study, the authors conducted a retrospective review to evaluate the response to GDC embolization in a series of 19 patients presenting with cranial nerve dysfunction due to mass effect. Methods. Aneurysms were classified by size, shape, wall calcification, and amount of intraluminal thrombus. Patients were classified by duration of symptoms prior to GDC treatment (range < 1 month to > 10 years). Clinical assessment was performed within days of the GDC procedure and at later follow-up appointments (range 1–70 months, mean 24 months). In the immediate post-GDC period, four patients experienced worsening of cranial nerve deficits. Two of the four patients had transient worsening of visual acuity, which later improved to better than baseline status. Another patient who had presented with headache and seventh and eighth cranial nerve deficits from a vertebrobasilar junction aneurysm had improvement in these symptoms, but developed a new diplopia. The fourth patient had worsening of her visual acuity, which had not resolved at the 1-month follow-up examination; this patient later underwent surgical decompression. Conclusions. On late follow-up review, the response was classified as complete resolution of symptoms in six patients (32%), improvement in eight patients (42%), no significant change in four patients (21%), and symptom worsening in one patient (5%). Patients with smaller aneurysms and those with shorter pretreatment duration of symptoms were more likely to experience an improvement in their symptoms following GDC treatment, although statistical significance was not reached in this series (p = 0.603 and p = 0.111, respectively). The presence of aneurysmal wall calcification (six patients) or intraluminal thrombus (12 patients) showed no correlation with the response of mass effect symptoms in these patients.


1997 ◽  
Vol 87 (2) ◽  
pp. 184-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kent R. Thielen ◽  
Douglas A. Nichols ◽  
Jimmy R. Fulgham ◽  
David G. Piepgras

✓ The authors report their experience using electrolytically detachable coils for the treatment of residual cerebral aneurysms following incomplete surgical clipping. Eight patients were treated for six anterior and two posterior circulation aneurysm remnants. All patients were referred for endovascular treatment by experienced cerebrovascular neurosurgeons at the authors' institution. Patients underwent follow-up angiography immediately after endovascular treatment. In seven of the eight patients, additional follow-up angiographic studies were obtained at periods ranging from 7 weeks to 2 years posttreatment. The latest follow-up angiograms demonstrated that six of the eight aneurysm remnants were 100% occluded, with near-complete occlusion of the other two aneurysm remnants. There was no permanent neurological or non-neurological morbidity or mortality associated with the treatment. There was no incidence of aneurysm hemorrhage during or after treatment. Endovascular treatment of cerebral aneurysm remnants following prior surgical clipping can be accomplished with acceptable morbidity and mortality rates. Endovascular coil occlusion can play an important adjunctive role in the treatment of those aneurysms that have been incompletely obliterated by surgical clipping.


1992 ◽  
Vol 77 (4) ◽  
pp. 515-524 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guido Guglielmi ◽  
Fernando Viñuela ◽  
Gary Duckwiler ◽  
Jacques Dion ◽  
Pedro Lylyk ◽  
...  

✓ In a multicenter study, 120 patients with intracranial aneurysms presenting a high surgical risk were treated using electrolytically detachable coils and electrothrombosis via an endovascular approach. The results of treatment in patients with posterior fossa aneurysms (42 patients with 43 aneurysms) are presented. The most frequent clinical presentation was subarachnoid hemorrhage (24 cases). The clinical follow-up periods ranged from 1 week to 18 months. Complete aneurysm occlusion was obtained in 13 of 16 aneurysms with a small neck and in four of 26 wide-necked aneurysms. A 70% to 98% thrombosis of the aneurysm was achieved in 22 of 26 aneurysms with a wide neck and in three of 16 small-necked aneurysms. One aneurysm could not be treated due to a technical complication. Two cases required postprocedural surgical clipping of a residual aneurysm. One patient (originally in Hunt and Hess Grade V) experienced procedural rupture of the aneurysm requiring an emergency parent artery occlusion. He eventually died 5 days later. Another patient (originally in Grade IV) had coil migration and posterior cerebral artery territory ischemia. A third patient developed a permanent neurological deficit (hemianopsia) after complete occlusion of a wide-necked basilar bifurcation aneurysm. One patient, harboring an inoperable giant basilar bifurcation aneurysm, died from aneurysm bleeding 18 months after partial occlusion. Overall morbidity and mortality rates related to treatment were 4.8% (two cases) and 2.4% (one case), respectively (2.6% and 0% if considering only patients in Hunt and Hess Grades I, II, and III). It is suggested that this technique is a viable alternative in the management of patients with posterior fossa aneurysms associated with high surgical risk. Longer angiographic and clinical follow-up study is necessary to determine the long-term efficacy of this recently developed endovascular occlusion technique. Close postoperative angiographic and clinical monitoring of patients with wide-necked subtotally occluded aneurysms is mandatory to check for potential aneurysmal recanalization, regrowth, and rupture.


1995 ◽  
Vol 83 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew J. Molyneux ◽  
David W. Ellison ◽  
James Morris ◽  
James V. Byrne

✓ The authors report the pathological and histological findings in two patients with giant partially thrombosed aneurysms who were treated by means of Guglielmi detachable coils with subtotal occlusion of the aneurysms. Autopsies of these patients were performed 2 and 6 months after endovascular treatment. The histological findings revealed coils embedded in largely unorganized thrombus in the aneurysms; there was no clear reduction in size of the aneurysms over the period. There was no evidence of endothelialization of the aneurysm neck demonstrated in either case. The significance of these findings is discussed.


2002 ◽  
Vol 96 (3) ◽  
pp. 474-482 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michel E. Mawad ◽  
Saruhan Cekirge ◽  
Elisa Ciceri ◽  
Isil Saatci

Object. The aim of this study was to test the feasibility, safety, and efficacy of a new endovascular method for the treatment of giant intracranial aneurysms. This new method consists of combining a metallic stent with a liquid polymer; the stent is first placed across the neck of the aneurysm to reconstruct a tubular arterial lumen, followed by obliteration of the fundus of the aneurysm with an ethyl vinyl alcohol polymer. During its injection, the liquid polymer is contained within the aneurysm by temporarily inflating an occlusion balloon in the parent artery. Methods. Eleven patients harboring a giant aneurysm were successfully treated using this procedure. All aneurysms were excluded from the circulation, with preservation of the parent artery. In nine of the 11 patients, the 6-month follow-up angiogram demonstrated no recanalization of the aneurysm. In one patient who had a giant and partially clotted internal carotid artery bifurcation aneurysm, the follow-up angiogram demonstrated minimal recanalization. The complications in this series of patients included one death and one case of transient hemiparesis caused by watershed ischemia. Conclusions. The initial anatomical results and the clinical outcome in this small series of patients are very encouraging. The mortality and morbidity rates associated with this new endovascular treatment are superior to those associated with surgical clipping of giant aneurysms.


2005 ◽  
Vol 103 (6) ◽  
pp. 990-999 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans Henkes ◽  
Sebastian Fischer ◽  
Wagner Mariushi ◽  
Werner Weber ◽  
Thomas Liebig ◽  
...  

Object. The aim of this study was to analyze the effect of the endovascular treatment of basilar artery (BA) bifurcation aneurysms and to compare the results with those published by other neuroendovascular teams. Methods. The authors performed a retrospective analysis of 316 aneurysms of the BA bifurcation that had been treated using endovascular coil occlusion between November 6, 1992, and February 12, 2005. After the initial embolization procedure, a 90 to 100% occlusion rate was achieved in 86% of the aneurysms. No complication was evident in 80% of the lesions, although periprocedural aneurysm rupture (3.2%) and thromboembolic events (12.3%) were the most frequent complications. Clinical outcome according to the Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS) was a score of 5 or 4 in 77%, 3 in 11%, 2 in 5%, and 1 in 7% of patients. Initial follow-up angiography studies were obtained in 56% of patients at a mean of 19 months posttreatment and demonstrated a 90 to 100% occlusion rate in 70%. No recurrence was seen on 65% of the aneurysms. Coil compaction was evident on 24% of the follow-up angiograms. A second treatment was performed on 48 aneurysms (15%) a mean of 27 months after the first therapeutic session and resulted in 90 to 100% occlusion in 83% of the lesions. Complications were encountered in 19% of the aneurysms. Rupture did not occur during any of the procedures. Clinical outcome was rated as GOS Score 5 or 4 in 83% of the patients and Grade 3 in 17%. During a cumulative clinical follow up of 821 years in 237 patients, 182 patients (81%) were independent (GOS Score 5 or 4), 33 (14%) were dependent (GOS Score 3), eight (3%) were in a vegetative state, and two (1%) had died. Clinical outcome was significantly worse after previous aneurysm rupture and following procedural complications. Conclusions. These results are within the range of published data for coil treatment of BA tip aneurysms and confirm both the safety and efficacy of this endovascular treatment method.


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