Salvage surgical treatment for failed endovascular procedure of a blood blister-like aneurysm

Clipping on Crossed Wrapping Method for Ruptured Blood Blister-Like Aneurysm of the Internal Carotid Artery: Technical Note and Long-Term Results

Background

We have been performing the clipping on crossed wrapping (COCW) method using 2 strips of cotton on patients with an internal carotid artery blood blister-like aneurysm (IC-BLA). This method is reliable in preventing the clips from slipping off and the aneurysm walls from being damaged during clipping, and it enables more appropriate and safer clipping. Here we report the technical details of this method and the long-term outcomes of patients receiving this procedure.

Methods

Fifteen of 1275 (1.5%) patients with a ruptured cerebral aneurysm who received treatment at the Saiseikai Kumamoto Hospital during the period from January 1, 1999, to December 31, 2016, had an IC-BLA. All 15 patients were treated with COCW, except for the first patient, who was treated using a single strip of cotton. The long-term outcome of the treatment was analyzed.

Results

The mean follow-up period was 74 months. The first patient experienced rerupture of an aneurysm 10 days after the operation. No complications or regrowth of an aneurysm were observed in the remaining 14 patients during the follow-up period, except for 1 patient who received a reoperation for the regrowth of an aneurysm. As the final outcome, the numbers of patients with a Modified Rankin Score of 0, 3, and 6 were 13, 1, and 1, respectively.

Conclusions

It is suggested that COCW is a treatment that enables safe and long-term management of lesions in IC-BLAs.

The Blood Blister Like-aneurysm: Usefulness of Sundt Clip

Objective

Blood blister-like aneurysm (BBA) is a kind of dorsal wall aneurysm and it is small, sessile, fragile and hazardous because of its high mortality and morbidity. Many challenges tried to establish the management or strategy. But so far, there is no optimal treatment of choice for the BBA. In this article, 17 cases of the ruptured BBA in one institute were analyzed retrospectively. The operative options were correlated with surgical and clinical outcomes.

Materials and Methods

During 14 years between October, 2002 and October, 2016, 23 patients were treated for subarachnoid hemorrhage with ruptured dorsal wall aneurysms. There were various strategies for treatment and different outcomes revealed. BBA were 17 (74%) cases and 6 (26%) cases were saccular aneurysm. By excluding saccular aneurysm, BBA was sorted and classified with its morphological characteristics, and the outcome of treatment in each case investigated retrospectively.

Results

Among 17 BBA-cases, 8 cases get microsurgical operation by Sundt clip. 5 cases get operation by conventional Yasargil clip, 1 case treated by Yasargil clip with wrapping, and 2 cases underwent endovascular management with coiling, and 1 case was managed by endovascular trapping of involved internal cerebral artery. Clinical outcomes were analyzed with modified Rankin Scale, Glasgow outcome scale and post-operative complications.

Conclusion

As the optimal management, operation using Sundt clip had much significance in treatment BBA. And, a thorough analysis of the angiography is essential to prepare for the treatment of BBA.

Microsurgical versus endovascular interventions for blood-blister aneurysms of the internal carotid artery: systematic review of literature and meta-analysis on safety and efficacy

OBJECTIVE Blood-blister aneurysms (BBAs) of the internal carotid artery (ICA) have a poor natural history associated with high morbidity and mortality. Currently, both surgical and endovascular techniques are employed to treat BBAs; thus, the authors sought to perform a meta-analysis to compare the efficacy and safety of these approaches. METHODS A literature search of PubMed, MEDLINE, and Google Scholar online databases was performed to include pertinent English-language studies from 2005 to 2015 that discussed the efficacy and safety of either surgical or endovascular therapies to treat BBAs. RESULTS Thirty-six papers describing 256 patients with BBAs treated endovascularly (122 procedures) or surgically (139 procedures) were examined for data related to therapeutic efficacy and safety. Pooled analysis of 9 papers demonstrated immediate and late (mean 20.9 months) aneurysm occlusion rates of 88.9% (95% CI 77.6%-94.8%) and 88.4% (95% CI 76.7%-94.6%), respectively, in surgically treated patients. Pooled analysis of 12 papers revealed immediate and late aneurysm obliteration rates of 63.9% (95% CI 52.3%-74.1%) and 75.9% (95% CI 65.9%-83.7%), respectively, in endovascularly treated aneurysms. Procedure-related complications and overall poor neurological outcomes were slightly greater in the surgically treated cases than in the endovascularly treated cases (27.8% [95% CI 19.6%-37.8%] vs 26.2% [95% CI 18.4%-35.8%]), indicating that endovascular therapy may provide better outcomes. CONCLUSIONS Blood-blister aneurysms are rare, challenging lesions with a poor prognosis. Although surgical management potentially offers superior aneurysm obliteration rates immediately after treatment and at the long-term follow-up, endovascular therapy may have a better safety profile and provide better functional outcomes than surgery. A registry of patients treated for BBAs may be warranted to better document the natural course of the disease as well as treatment outcomes.

Hybrid procedure combining clip on wrapping and stent placement for ruptured supraclinoid blood blister-like aneurysm of the internal carotid artery

Blood blister-like aneurysms of the supraclinoid portion of the internal carotid artery are rare, fragile, and thin-walled lesions with a higher rate of rebleeding. Our case underwent a hybrid procedure combining direct surgical and endovascular approach.

Morphological aspects of blister aneurysms and nuances for surgical treatment

OBJECT

Blister aneurysms of the supraclinoid part of the internal carotid artery (ICA) are known for their high morbidity and mortality rates related to treatment, regardless of whether the treatment is surgical or endovascular. However, this grim prognosis is based on results that indiscriminately group all blister aneurysms together without taking into account the heterogeneous appearance of these lesions. The goal of this study was 2-fold: to determine whether different blister aneurysm morphologies present different pitfalls, which would then require different surgical strategies, as well as to determine whether there are identifiable subgroups of these types of aneurysms based on morphology.

METHODS

The authors reviewed the charts, cerebral catheter angiograms, surgical reports, and intraoperative videos of all ICA blister aneurysms treated surgically at the Centre Hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal from 2005 to 2012 to investigate whether there was a relationship between morphology and pitfalls, and whether different surgical strategies had been used according to these pitfalls. During this review process the authors noted 4 distinct morphological aspects. These 4 aspects led to a review of the English and French literature on blister aneurysms in which imaging was available, to determine whether other cases could also be classified into the same 4 subgroups based on these morphological aspects.

RESULTS

The retrospective review of the authors' series of 10 patients allowed a division into 4 distinct subtypes: Type I (classic), Type II (berry-like), Type III (longitudinal), and Type IV (circumferential). These subtypes may at times be progressive stages in the arterial anomaly, and could represent a continuum. Each subtype described in this paper presented its own pitfalls and required specific surgical adaptations. Upon reviewing the literature the authors retained 35 studies involving a total of 61 cases of blister aneurysms, and all cases were able to be classified into 1 of these 4 distinct subtypes.

CONCLUSIONS

Although they share some common characteristics, blister aneurysms may be divided into distinct subtypes, suggestive of a continuum. Such a classification with a detailed description of each type of blister aneurysm would allow for better recognition to anticipate complications during intervention and better assess the different treatment strategies according to the subtypes.

Use of the sundt clip graft in a previously coiled internal carotid artery blister-like aneurysm

Owing to the focal wall defect covered with thin fibrous tissues, an aneurysm arising from the dorsal wall of the internal carotid artery (ICA) is difficult to manage either surgically or endovascularly and is often associated with high morbidity and mortality. Unfortunately, the definitive treatment modality of such highly risky aneurysm has not yet been demonstrated. Upon encountering the complex intracranial pathophysiology of such a highly precarious aneurysm, a neurosurgeon would be faced with a challenge to decide on an optimal approach. This is a case of multiple paraclinoid aneurysms including the ICA dorsal wall aneurysm, presented with spontaneous subarachnoid hemorrhage. With respect to treatment, direct clipping with a Sundt graft clip was performed after multiple endovascular interventions had failed. This surgical approach can be a treatment modality for a blood blister-like aneurysm after failed endovascular intervention(s).

Blood blister-like aneurysm with rupture point close to origin of anterior choroidal artery

If a ruptured blood blister-like aneurysm (BBA) arises from the lateral or superolateral wall of the internal carotid artery (ICA) at the level of the anterior choroidal artery (AChA), its proximity to the origin of the AChA presents a serious surgical challenge to preserve the patency of the AChA. Two such rare cases are presented, along with successful surgical techniques, including the application of a C-shaped aneurysm clip parallel to the ICA and a microsuture technique to repair the arterial defect. The patency of the AChA and ICA was successfully preserved without recurrence or rebleeding of the BBA during a 1-year follow-up after the operation.

The sundt encircling clip as a vascular rescue: a case report and a review of repair methods for arterial tearing

The Sundt encircling clip was developed to repair defects of the vessel wall. With the advent of microvascular techniques, most parts of the damaged vessel wall during aneurysm surgery can be repaired by primary closure or by the bypass technique. However, these methods are not always successful. Here, we illustrate two cases of surgical clipping with the Sundt encircling clip in the ruptured internal carotid artery trunk aneurysm. The Sundt clip provides prompt control of unexpected tearing of the vessel wall or aneurysm and plays an important role in vascular rescue during aneurysm surgery.