Utility of balloon-assisted guglielmi detachable coiling in the treatment of cerebral aneurysms. A single center retrospective study

Symptomatic delayed coil migration after balloon assisted embolization: An underreported adverse event?

Microsurgical clipping is still regarded as the gold-standard treatment for broad-neck intracranial aneurysms. New endovascular techniques like balloon or stent assisted coiling are quickly rising to the challenge and showing promising outcomes. As a result, broad-neck aneurysms are increasingly addressed by these techniques despite they have not been tested against clipping in a randomized controlled trial and long-term complications might be unknown yet. Intraprocedural coil migration has been well documented in the literature, but the same complication in a delayed fashion is scarcely reported. We present a case of delayed coil migration occurring after a balloon-assisted embolization of a wide-necked intracranial aneurysm and we perform a literature review for similar cases. We discuss how, despite seeming an extremely rare complication, with new endovascular techniques increasingly perceived as the safer option in any aneurysm, potential adverse events may become more frequent. Strategies proposed to address this developing scenario are also reviewed.

A multicenter study of 705 ruptured intracranial aneurysms treated with Guglielmi detachable coils

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

The long-term durability of Guglielmi detachable coil (GDC) embolization of cerebral aneurysms is still unknown. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the stability of anatomic occlusion of aneurysms treated with GDCs and assess the rate of recanalization and re-treatment.

METHODS

A multicenter study involving 650 patients with 705 ruptured aneurysms treated with GDCs between January 1998 to May 2003 was conducted. During this period, 63% of ruptured aneurysms were treated by the endovascular technique. The morbidity and mortality associated with this technique, procedural feasibility, acute angiographic occlusion results, and long-term angiographic follow-up were assessed.

RESULTS

Overall technical feasibility of GDC treatment was 96.9%. Upon admission, 25% of patients were Hunt and Hess grade IV or V. Acute angiographic results in 683 aneurysms demonstrated total occlusion in 496 cases (72.6%), subtotal occlusion in 171 cases (25.%), and incomplete occlusion in 16 cases (2.4%). All patients were controlled by angiography and MR imaging at 3 months, 1 year, and subsequent yearly examinations post-treatment. A second treatment was performed in 27 cases (recanalization, 4.7%). Long-term follow-up angiograms (mean, 36 months) were obtained in 571 aneurysms (95%). Of them, 422 aneurysms (73.9%) demonstrated complete occlusion, 148 aneurysms (25.9%) demonstrated subtotal occlusion, and only 1 aneurysm was incompletely occluded. Overall mortality was 11.4% for all patients, with procedural mortality evaluated at 1.4%. Overall morbidity was calculated at 8.6%. Only one rebleeding occurred in our study, with a second procedure performed without vital consequences for the patient.

CONCLUSION

Our multicenter study confirms the stability of aneurysm embolization with GDC, with only 4.7% of aneurysms requiring re-treatment.