Clinical Analysis and Surgical Treatment of Vertebral Aneurysm

ABSTRACT

Aneurysms of the vertebral artery are relatively uncommon. Diagnois and treatment of such condition aneurysm has a potentially higher degree of technical difficulty. We retrospectively analyzed the clinical features and therapentic outcomes of 12 consecutive patients with vertebral aneurysms that we have encountered during the last 11 years. Most of these aneurysms occured in females (9 of 12). Eight patients presented as classic subarachnoid hemorrhage, three were diagnosed incidentally, and the other one patient had fusiform aneurysm presented with mass effect. Among the 12, there were 7 saccular aneurysms, 2 fusiform aneurysms, and 3 dissecting aneurysms. Eight of these were located at the origin of the posterior inferior cerebellar artery(PICA), two were at the junction of the vertebral and basilar arteries, and two were at the distal portion of PICA. Direct neck clipping was performed in 8 patients and proximal ligation of the vertebral artery was done in 4 patients due to the impossibility of direct neck clipping. Eleven of them experienced no major morbidity. However, one patient with fusiform aneurysm treated by vertebral artery clipping developed right cerebellar hemispheric infarction. Unfortunately this patient died 10 months after surgery due to lung abscess related to Behcet's disease.