Endovascular Treatment of Intracranial Vertebral Artery Dissection

Stent-assisted coil embolization of ruptured vertebral artery dissected aneurysm with severe stenosis of bilateral vertebral artery V4 segment by the transmountain technique: a case report and review of the literatures

A 46-year-old woman presented with acute head and neck pain for 10 h. Head CT showed subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) and digital subtraction angiography (DSA) identified a ruptured dissected aneurysm of the right vertebral artery with severe artery stenosis. Moreover, an unruptured dissecting aneurysm and severe vascular stenosis were also found in the left vertebral artery. How to deal with ruptured bleeding aneurysm and prophylactically deal with contralateral unruptured dissecting aneurysm and the stenosis of the vertebral artery has become a thorny problem. By adopting the Transmountain technique, we used a single Enterprise-2 stent to cover the neck of the right ruptured vertebral artery dissection aneurysm and the severe stenosis of the distal vessel, while bypassing the vertebrobasilar artery junction to continue covering the severe stenosis and the unruptured dilated dissection of the contralateral vertebral artery. This new stent-assisted approach may provide a reference for clinicians in the treatment of complex dissection aneurysms.

A clinical comparative study of dual LVIS devices and single flow diversion stenting for the treatment of unruptured V3-V4 vertebral artery dissection

PURPOSE

This study aims to compare the efficacy and safety of using overlapping low-profile visualized intraluminal support (LVIS) devices and flow diversion (FD) for the treatment of unruptured vertebral artery dissection (VAD) in the V3-V4 segments.

METHODS

The clinical and imaging data of 71 patients with unruptured VAD in the V3-V4 segments who underwent either dual LVIS stenting (d-LVIS group) or single FD stenting (FD group) at our center from September 2014 to December 2021 were retrospectively analyzed.

RESULTS

Immediate postoperative angiography revealed no significant difference in the degree of occlusion between the two groups in treating vertebral artery dissecting aneurysms (with or without noncompact coiling). However, the d-LVIS group had significantly higher fluoroscopy exposure time and total radiation exposure dose compared to the FD group. During the perioperative period, two cases of pontine infarction and one case of acute thrombosis were encountered. One patient died from subarachnoid hemorrhage during the follow-up period. For dissecting the aneurysm, angiographic follow-up (8.56 ± 1.96 months) showed similar healing outcomes between the two groups (with or without noncompact coiling). However, seven patients (7/40, 17.5%) showed poor healing and one patient showed mild in-stent stenosis. For simple dissection, angiographic follow-up (8.78 ± 1.83 months) showed patent lumens in both groups, with all dissections healing well, and two patients having mild in-stent stenosis.

CONCLUSION

Both methods could effectively treat unruptured VAD in V3-V4 segments. Nevertheless, simple FD implantation is relatively easier to perform and involves lower radiation exposure.

Endovascular Treatment for Intracranial Artery Dissections in Posterior Circulation

Intracranial artery dissections (IADs), although uncommon, are an important cause of cerebral infarction and subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). Some IADs can heal spontaneously after reconstitution of the vessel lumen with excellent prognosis. Meanwhile, others can progress to stroke that requires treatment. The incidence of IAD in the posterior circulation is higher than that in the anterior circulation. Anterior circulation dissections are more likely to develop into ischemia and posterior circulation lesions into hemorrhage. The mortality rate after IAD among patients with SAH is 19%-83%. Further, the mortality rate of IAD without SAH is 0%-3%. Patients with SAH commonly undergo surgery or receive neuroendovascular treatment (EVT) to prevent rebleeding. However, the treatment of IADs is empirical in the absence of data from randomized controlled trials. Recently, EVT has emerged and is considered for IADs because of its less invasiveness and perceived low rates of procedure-related morbidity with good efficacy. EVT strategies can be classified into deconstructive (involving sacrifice of the parent artery) and reconstructive (preserving blood flow via the parent vessel) techniques. In particular, the number of reports on reconstructive techniques is increasing. However, a reconstructive technique for ruptured IADs has not yet been established. This review aimed to provide an overview of IADs in the posterior circulation managed with EVT by performing a literature search.