How are aneurysms treated?

There are actually several options for treating brain aneurysms. They range from open surgical techniques, meaning you actually go in, opening the skull and removing the aneurysm by using a clip, to wait and watch, and surveillance of this, because some aneurysms inside the brain, strangely enough, don't need to be treated. It's actually more risky if you were to opt for a treatment plan, with certain categories of brain aneurysm, and that's why it's so important to have these patients come and talk to us, and go through the various options.

The one option we actually use most frequently now, because research and literature certainly support this type of care, is the minimally invasive treatment of an aneurysm, using what's called endovascular techniques, or similar models to what cardiologists do for the heart now, where they use wires and catheters through the arterial system instead of opening the chest and being directly involved with the heart, you use the already existing arterial system to allow you to transport your tools to the location in which you need them.

For our procedures, we tend to go through the arteries starting in the leg, all the way up into the head. Many patients are confused why we would take that route. The reason for that is safety. It's actually one of the easiest places to get into the arterial system in the body. It's a safe and well studied region of the body to both get in and get out without bleeding or an infection rate that's very high, so these are ideal situations for us, because we can then treat an aneurysm with making a tiny little incision just down at the leg and repair an aneurysm inside the head, and that's really all the patient has to show for it is this little tiny incision, it's less than a centimeter in length.