Commentary: The Experience With Flow Diverters in the Treatment of Posterior Inferior Cerebellar Artery Aneurysms

Feasibility and Efficacy of Low-profile Visual Intraluminal Support Device: a Single Center Five-year Experience

INTRODUCTION

The Low-Profile Visualized Intraluminal Support (LVIS) devices are a new generation of self-expandable, high-porosity stents approved for the treatment of large to giant wide-necked intracranial aneurysms via stent-assisted coiling. Here we report the radiographic and clinical outcomes seen with LVIS, LVIS Jr. and LVIS Blue from a single institution over a five-year period.

METHODS

Patients with intracranial aneurysms treated by LVIS, LVIS Jr. and LVIS Blue technology over a five-year period (2012 - 2017) at our institution were retrospectively reviewed.

RESULTS

Seventy-four patients (55 females and 19 males; average age = 59.2) with 74 aneurysms underwent embolization of intracranial aneurysms using LVIS (N =10), LVIS Jr. (N = 47) or LVIS Blue (N =12) devices at our institution over the study period. The most common location of treated aneurysms was the anterior communicating artery (31%), followed by the basilar artery (19%), and the middle cerebral artery (13%). The mean neck and dome sizes were 3.9±1.5mm and 6.6±3.2mm, respectively. The median follow-up time was 6 months. At the last radiographic follow-up, 93.1% of patients had complete occlusion (RR-I or OKM-D). In 5 cases (7%), the LVIS stent failed to open, requiring balloon angioplasty (N=3) or stent recapture and use of a non-LVIS branded device (N=2). Five patients had post-embolization infarcts, and 1 patient had an intra-operative dome rupture.

CONCLUSION

LVIS brand of stents is a safe, effective, and technically feasible treatment strategy for wide-neck intracranial aneurysms, with high deployment success and aneurysm obliteration rates.