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Objective: Giant intracranial aneurysms (GIA) are rare lesions that display the poorest treatment outcomes of all intracranial aneurysms (IA). The international GIA Registry was initiated as a dedicated health services project in 2008, dealing exclusively with GIA. Its main goal is to document current[for full text, please go to the a.m. URL], 70. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie (DGNC), Joint Meeting mit der Skandinavischen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie

Objective: Giant intracranial aneurysms (GIA) are known for the highest risk of rupture and the highest mortality rates of all intracranial aneurysms. Since GIA are a rare disease condition, there is limited evidence on them. We aim to examine the natural history and treatment outcomes of ruptured (rGIA)[for full text, please go to the a.m. URL], 69. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie (DGNC), Joint Meeting mit der Mexikanischen und Kolumbianischen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie

Vascular lesions of the vertebrobasilar junction (VBJ) are a challenging task in neurosurgical practice, and their gold-standard therapy is still under debate. The authors describe the operative strategies currently in use for the management of those complex vascular lesions and discuss their rationale throughout a literature metaanalysis and a single center blinded retrospective study. The single center study included a review of initial presentation, angiographic features and clinical outcome (with modified Rankin Scale [mRS] scores) over a long-term follow-up. In our series, small aneurysms were effectively treated with endosaccular coils embolization; whereas a strategy including flow-diverter devices combined with endosaccular coils embolization was the option of choice in large and giant aneurysms, leading to satisfactory outcomes in most of the cases. Our Medline review showed that the endovascular treatment was chosen in most of the VBJ cases, whereas the microsurgical option was assigned only to few cases. Among the endovascular treatments, the most common techniques used for the treatment of VBJ aneurysms were: coiling, stent assisted coiling and flow diversion. Our study highlights that aneurysm's morphology, location and patient-specific angioarchitecture are key factors to be considered in the management of VBJ aneurysms. Noteworthy, thus the majority of case series, including ours, shows that parent artery reconstruction using flow-diverter is a feasible and successful technique, in some cases of giant and complex aneurysms (especially those involving the lower 1/3 of the basilar artery) a "seat back, wait and see" approach may represents the safest and most reasonable option.

Background: Designing treatment strategies for unruptured giant intracranial aneurysms (GIA) is difficult as evidence of large clinical trials is lacking. We examined the outcome following surgical or endovascular GIA treatment focusing on patient age, GIA location and unruptured GIA. Methods: Medline and Embase were searched for studies reporting on GIA treatment outcome published after January 2000. We calculated the proportion of good outcome (PGO) for all included GIA and for unruptured GIA by meta-analysis using a random effects model. Results: We included 54 studies containing 64 study populations with 1,269 GIA at a median follow-up time (FU-T) of 26.4 months (95% CI 10.8-42.0). PGO was 80.9% (77.4-84.4) in the analysis of all GIA compared to 81.2% (75.3-86.1) in the separate analysis of unruptured GIA. For each year added to patient age, PGO decreased by 0.8%, both for all GIA and unruptured GIA. For all GIA, surgical treatment resulted in a PGO of 80.3% (95% CI 76.0-84.6) compared to 84.2% (78.5-89.8, p = 0.27) after endovascular treatment. In unruptured GIA, PGO was 79.7% (95% CI 71.5-87.8) after surgical treatment and 84.9% (79.1-90.7, p = 0.54) after endovascular treatment. PGO was lower in high quality studies and in studies presenting aggregate instead of individual patient data. In unruptured GIA, the OR for good treatment outcome was 5.2 (95% CI 2.0-13.0) at the internal carotid artery compared to 0.1 (0.1-0.3, p < 0.1) in the posterior circulation. Patient sex, FU-T and prevalence of ruptured GIA were not associated with PGO. Conclusions: We found that the chances of good outcome after surgical or endovascular GIA treatment mainly depend on patient age and aneurysm location rather than on the type of treatment conducted. Our analysis may inform future research on GIA.

As the conclusions of the ARUBA Study are strongly oriented towards therapeutic abstention, we think it is appropriate to express the concern of the Italian Society of Neurosurgery for the impact that this study might have on the health of patients, if not properly evaluated. The vast majority of patients (76-81%) included in the study was treated with endovascular or radiotherapy treatments, alone or in combination. Only 18 patients (19%) had surgery. It is well known that a partial treatment of arteriovenous malformations (AVMs), as is often the case with endovascular therapy, may increase the risk of bleeding. The primary endpoint (death or symptomatic stroke) in the treated group was reached in 30.7%, i.e. almost one-third of the subjects. This has no comparison in the current surgical literature. Considering permanent and transient neurological deficits along with headaches and seizures all together in the same outcome evaluation parameter may be inappropriate and misleading. The graph with all results from the ARUBA Study, which claims to be the demonstration that natural history is better that treatment, clearly shows that what is assumed to be treated has not actually been treated. If death or stroke occur a few years from treatment, it only means that the disease was not cured and patients received a partial - therefore ineffective, if not dangerous - treatment. An effective treatment, as surgery is, must have a flat follow-up curve. The ARUBA Study shows that incomplete treatment leads to negative outcome, confirming that an integrated multidisciplinary strategy has to be plotted out before starting any treatment and that a complete exclusion of the AVM must be achieved.

In patients with ischemic stroke, endovascular treatment results in a higher rate of recanalization of the affected cerebral artery than systemic intravenous thrombolytic therapy. However, comparison of the clinical efficacy of the two approaches is needed.We randomly assigned 362 patients with acute ischemic stroke, within 4.5 hours after onset, to endovascular therapy (intraarterial thrombolysis with recombinant tissue plasminogen activator [t-PA], mechanical clot disruption or retrieval, or a combination of these approaches) or intravenous t-PA. Treatments were to be given as soon as possible after randomization. The primary outcome was survival free of disability (defined as a modified Rankin score of 0 or 1 on a scale of 0 to 6, with 0 indicating no symptoms, 1 no clinically significant disability despite symptoms, and 6 death) at 3 months.A total of 181 patients were assigned to receive endovascular therapy, and 181 intravenous t-PA. The median time from stroke onset to the start of treatment was 3.75 hours for endovascular therapy and 2.75 hours for intravenous t-PA (P0.001). At 3 months, 55 patients in the endovascular-therapy group (30.4%) and 63 in the intravenous t-PA group (34.8%) were alive without disability (odds ratio adjusted for age, sex, stroke severity, and atrial fibrillation status at baseline, 0.71; 95% confidence interval, 0.44 to 1.14; P=0.16). Fatal or nonfatal symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage within 7 days occurred in 6% of the patients in each group, and there were no significant differences between groups in the rates of other serious adverse events or the case fatality rate.The results of this trial in patients with acute ischemic stroke indicate that endovascular therapy is not superior to standard treatment with intravenous t-PA. (Funded by the Italian Medicines Agency, ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00640367.).

OBJECT The underlying mechanisms causing intracranial perianeurysmal edema (PAE) are still poorly understood. Since PAE is most frequently observed in giant intracranial aneurysms (GIAs), the authors designed a study to examine the occurrence of PAE in relation to the location, size, and partial thrombosis (PT) of GIAs along with the clinical impact of PAE. METHODS Magnetic resonance imaging data for patients with a diagnosis of unruptured GIA from the international multicenter Giant Intracranial Aneurysm Registry were retrospectively analyzed with regard to location and size of the GIA, PAE volume, and the presence of PT. The occurrence of PAE was correlated to clinical findings. RESULTS Imaging data for 69 GIAs were eligible for inclusion in this study. Perianeurysmal edema was observed in 33.3% of all cases, with the highest frequency in GIAs of the middle cerebral artery (MCA; 68.8%) and the lowest frequency in GIAs of the cavernous internal carotid artery (ICA; 0.0%). Independent predictors of PAE formation were GIA volume (OR 1.13, p = 0.02) and the occurrence of PT (OR 9.84, p = 0.04). Giant intracranial aneurysm location did not predict PAE occurrence. Giant aneurysms with PAE were larger than GIAs without PAE (p < 0.01), and GIA volume correlated with PAE volume (rs = 0.51, p = 0.01). Perianeurysmal edema had no influence on the modified Rankin Scale score (p = 0.30 or the occurrence of aphasia (p = 0.61) or hemiparesis (p = 0.82). CONCLUSIONS Perianeurysmal edema was associated with GIA size and the presence of PT. As no PAE was observed in cavernous ICA aneurysms, even though they exerted mass effect on the brain and also displayed PT, the dura mater may serve as a barrier protecting the brain from PAE formation.

Item does not contain fulltext BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Incomplete occlusion and recanalization of large and wide-neck brain aneurysms treated by endovascular therapy remains a challenge. We present preliminary clinical and angiographic results of an experimentally optimized Surpass flow diverter for treatment of intracranial aneurysms in a prospective, multicenter, nonrandomized, single-arm study. MATERIALS AND METHODS: At 24 centers, 165 patients with 190 intracranial aneurysms of the anterior and posterior circulations were enrolled. The primary efficacy end point was the percentage of intracranial aneurysms with 100% occlusion on 6-month DSA. The primary safety end point was neurologic death and any stroke through a minimum follow-up of 6 months. RESULTS: Successful flow-diverter delivery was achieved in 161 patients with 186 aneurysms (98%); the mean number of devices used per aneurysm was 1.05. Clinical follow-up (median, 6 months) of 150 patients (93.2%), showed that the primary safety end point occurred in 18 subjects. Permanent neurologic morbidity and mortality were 6% and 2.7%, respectively. Morbidity occurred in 4% and 7.4% of patients treated for aneurysms of the anterior and posterior circulation, respectively. Neurologic death during follow-up was observed in 1.6% and 7.4% of patients with treated intracranial aneurysms of the anterior and posterior circulation, respectively. Ischemic stroke at 30 days or SAH at >7 days occurred. New or worsening cranial nerve deficit was observed in 2.7%. Follow-up angiography available in 158 (86.8%) intracranial aneurysms showed 100% occlusion in 75%. CONCLUSIONS: Clinical outcomes of the Surpass flow diverter in the treatment of intracranial aneurysms show a safety profile that is comparable with that of stent-assisted coil embolization. Angiographic results showed a high rate of intracranial aneurysm occlusion.

Objective: Nidal penetration and obliteration was the aim of endovascular pre-operative treatment for severals years, otherwise we presented here a different treatment "strategy" where endovascular embolization is directed at specific angiographic target areas. The aim of pre-surgical endovascular[for full text, please go to the a.m. URL], 66. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie (DGNC)

OBJECTIVE To assess the feasibility, safety and preliminary efficacy of intra-arterial thrombolysis (IAT) compared with standard intravenous thrombolysis (IVT) for acute ischemic stroke. METHODS Eligible patients with ischemic stroke, who were devoid of contraindications, started IVT within 3 h or IAT as soon as possible within 6 h. Patients were randomized within 3 h of onset to receive either intravenous alteplase, in accordance with the current European labeling, or up to 0.9 mg/kg intra-arterial alteplase (maximum 90 mg), over 60 min into the thrombus, if necessary with mechanical clot disruption and/or retrieval. The purpose of the study was to determine the proportion of favorable outcome at 90 days. Safety endpoints included symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage (SICH), death and other serious adverse events. RESULTS 54 patients (25 IAT) were enrolled. Median time from stroke onset to start to treatment was 3 h 15 min for IAT and 2 h 35 min for IVT (p