Treatment for Recurrent Cerebral Aneurysm

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to make a management strategy for the patients with recurrent cerebral aneurysm after surgery. METHODS: Over a 19-year period, 1, 546 patients were treated for a ruptured intracranial aneurysm surgically. Twenty-six of these patients(1.7%) were subsequently treated for regrowing aneurysm(8) or de novo aneurysm formation(26). Among them, twenty-three individuals who presented with recurrent subarachnoid hemorrhage underwent conventional angiography to detect the aneurysm recurrence. Three-dimensional computed tomographic angiography was performed in the remaining three patients who complained chronic headache. The mean age at the first surgery was 48.6 years. An interval ranging from 1 to 192 months(mean, 76.1 months) since the original treatment. RESULTS: Total 34 recurrent aneurysms in 26 patients were treated by microsurgical clipping(29 cases), wrapping(1 case), and endovascular coiling(4 cases) as a second procedure. A satisfactory outcomes were achieved in twenty-one patients(80.8%) during a mean 69.5 months follow-up period. The most common site of the recurrence was the internal carotid-posterior communicating artery. Patients with de novo aneurysms are frequently hypertensive(61.1%) and younger in age(55.6%). CONCLUSION: The treatment of recurrent cerebral aneurysm could be performed effectively using direct operations and/or endovascular procedures.