Background: Headaches are a major cause of disability and healthcare cost worldwide. When investigating headaches etiology, incidental unruptured intracranial aneurysms are often considered unrelated. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess headaches outcomes (severity) after treatment of unruptured intracranial aneurysm. Methods: MEDLINE and EMBASE were systematically reviewed. Results: The data from eligible studies (n=7) was extracted and analyzed. 309 nonduplicated patients provided patient-level data for analysis. All studies used the 10-point numeric rating scale (NRS). 88% of patients were treated with endovascular technique. Overall, the observed effect estimate under a random effects model was found to be a standard mean difference in pre- and post-intervention headache severity of -0.448 (95% CI: -0.566 to -0.329). No significant heterogeneity was noted. No significant publication bias was demonstrated. Conclusions: This is the first and largest systematic review assessing postoperative headache outcomes after treatment of unruptured intracranial aneurysm. A significant reduction in headache intensity after treatment is observed in the current published literature. This study highlights an interesting clinical phenomenon that still warrants scientific effort before it can influence clinical practice. We encourage future study to stratify headache outcomes by aneurysm size, location and treatment modality.
Treatment of Intracranial Aneurysms with Self-Expandable Braided Stents: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
