Clipping in Awake Surgery as End-Stage in a Complex Internal Carotid Artery Aneurysm After Failure of Multimodal Endovascular and Extracranial-Intracranial Bypass Treatment

Perioperative Ischemic Stroke in Unruptured Intracranial Aneurysm Surgical or Endovascular Therapy

Background: Ischemic stroke among hospitalized patients who underwent surgical or endovascular therapies for unruptured intracranial aneurysms (IAs) has not been previously examined in nationally representative samples.

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to compare the occurrence and in-hospital outcomes (nonroutine discharge, length of stay) of perioperative ischemic stroke among hospitalized patients diagnosed with unruptured IA across treatment selection [surgical clipping, endovascular coiling, stent- or balloon-assisted coiling (SAC or BAC), combined clipping and coiling].

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted using 23,053 hospital discharge records from the 2002-2012 Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS). Rates, β coefficients, and odds ratios (ORs) with their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated accounting for survey design complexity, patient- and hospital-level confounders.

Results: Ischemic stroke rate was 6.9% [surgical clipping (4.3%), endovascular coiling (8.1%), BAC or SAC (1.9%), and combined techniques (4.2%)]. Multivariable logistic regression models suggested that compared to patients undergoing surgical clipping alone, those undergoing SAC or BAC were less likely to be diagnosed with ischemic stroke (adjusted OR=0.34, 95% CI: 0.14, 0.85). Compared to clipping, endovascular techniques resulted in fewer nonroutine dispositions and shorter hospitalizations, whereas combined techniques resulted in longer hospitalizations. Differences in hospitalization outcomes between treatment types were only affected by ischemic stroke when comparing coiling to clipping.

Conclusions: Perioperative ischemic stroke rate among patients with unruptured IA may be less among those undergoing SAC or BAC as compared to those undergoing surgical clipping alone. Improved in-hospital outcomes among coiling versus clipping recipients may depend on ischemic stroke diagnosis.

The First Awake Clipping of a Brain Aneurysm in Malaysia and in ASEAN: Achieving International Standards

World-renowned neurosurgeon, Professor Saleem Abdulrauf, has been featured in several medical journals for his successful "Awake Brain Aneurysm Surgery". Regarded as a "world first", this surgery, involves clipping un-ruptured brain aneurysms while patients are awake. Only one or two neurosurgery centres worldwide are capable of this. Performing the surgery while the patient is awake lowers risks of brain ischemia with neurological deficits and ventilator associated morbidities. The technique has been viewed as the start of a new era in brain surgery. Physicians from the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) School of Medical Sciences, at the Health Campus in Kelantan, headed by Professor Dr Zamzuri Idris (neurosurgeon) and Dr Wan Mohd Nazaruddin Wan Hassan (neuroanaesthetist), recently performed a similar procedure, the first such surgery in Malaysia and Southeast Asia. The USM team can therefore be considered to be among the first few to have done this brain surgery and achieved successful patient outcomes.