Peri-Procedural Morbidity and Mortality Associated with Stent-Assisted Coiling for Intracranial Aneurysms

Abstract

Despite experience and technological improvements, stent-assisted coiling for intracranial aneurysms still has inherent risks. We evaluated peri-procedural morbidity and mortality associated with stent-assisted coiling for intracranial aneurysms.

Patients with cerebral aneurysms that were broad-based (>4 mm) or had unfavorable dome/neck ratios (<1.5) were enrolled in this study between February and November 2011 at our center. Aneurysms were treated with the self-expanding neurovascular stents with adjunctive coil embolization.

Seventy-two consecutive patients (27 men and 45 women; 22–78 years of age; mean age, 52.8 years) underwent 13 procedures for 13 ruptured aneurysms and 64 procedures for 73 unruptured aneurysms. Nine [11.7%, 95% CI(4.5%–18.9%)] procedure-related complications occurred: one and eight with initial embolization of ruptured and unruptured aneurysms, respectively. Complications included six acute in-stent thromboses, one spontaneous stent migration, one post-procedural aneurysm rupture, and one perforator occlusion. Three complications had no neurologic consequences. Two caused transient neurologic morbidity, two persistent neurologic morbidity, and two death. Procedure-related neurologic morbidity and mortality rates, respectively, were as follows: overall, 5.2% (95%CI, 0.2%–10.2%) and 2.6% (95%CI, 0%–6.2%); ruptured aneurysms, 7.7% (95%CI, 0%–36%) and 0% (95%CI, 0%–25%); unruptured aneurysms, 4.7% (95%CI, 0%–9.9%) and 3.1% (95%CI, 0%–7.3%). Combined procedure-related morbidity and mortality rates for ruptured and unruptured aneurysms were 7.7% (95%CI, 1.7%–13.7%) and 7.8% (95%CI, 1.8%–13.8%), respectively.

Stent-assisted coiling is an attractive option for intracranial aneurysms. However, stent-assisted coiling for unruptured aneurysms is controversial for its comparable risk to natural history.