Current Treatment Options for Unruptured Intracranial Aneurysms
Current Treatment Options for Unruptured Intracranial Aneurysms
A patient with an unruptured intracranial aneurysm has three options: surgical clip placement, endovascular coil occlusion, and observation. The decision making about management of these lesions should be based on the risk of aneurysm rupture and the risks associated with surgical or endovascular intervention. For patients who require interventions, factors such as aneurysm recurrence rate, its location, surgical or endovascular accessibility, the patient's general medical condition, and the individual treatment preference should be taken into account to determine the choice of therapies. Currently, a team approach by neurosurgeons and endovascular interventionists is recommended to evaluate each patient and to tailor the best treatment plan.
Major advances in microsurgery, skull base surgery, and particularly endovascular neurosurgery, along with neuroanesthesia and intraoperative neuroelectrophysiological monitoring, have increased the safety and feasibility of treatments to obliterate intracranial aneurysms. In this paper the authors discuss the current treatment options for unruptured intracranial aneurysms: surgical obliteration, endovascular embolization, and conservative management. Special consideration is given to the idea of the team approach in which all available modalities are used to treat these patients optimally.
A patient with an unruptured intracranial aneurysm has three options: surgical clip placement, endovascular coil occlusion, and observation. The decision making about management of these lesions should be based on the risk of aneurysm rupture and the risks associated with surgical or endovascular intervention. For patients who require interventions, factors such as aneurysm recurrence rate, its location, surgical or endovascular accessibility, the patient's general medical condition, and the individual treatment preference should be taken into account to determine the choice of therapies. Currently, a team approach by neurosurgeons and endovascular interventionists is recommended to evaluate each patient and to tailor the best treatment plan.
Major advances in microsurgery, skull base surgery, and particularly endovascular neurosurgery, along with neuroanesthesia and intraoperative neuroelectrophysiological monitoring, have increased the safety and feasibility of treatments to obliterate intracranial aneurysms. In this paper the authors discuss the current treatment options for unruptured intracranial aneurysms: surgical obliteration, endovascular embolization, and conservative management. Special consideration is given to the idea of the team approach in which all available modalities are used to treat these patients optimally.