Professor Seo Dae-chul of Asan Medical Center (AMC) has introduced a new method to treat intracranial aneurysms for his patients, with no recurrence or side effects reported, the hospital said Wednesday.

Endovascular coil embolization is performed through the skin to treat an intracranial aneurysm from within the blood vessel without the need of a craniotomy. In this procedure, a microcatheter is inserted into the femoral artery near the groin and navigated to the site of an aneurysm. Small platinum coils are deployed through the microcatheter to fill an aneurysm, to prevent it from further expansion and rupture.

Small blood vessels that split from the large cerebral blood vessels can get clogged in this process, which is why Professor Seo introduced the new method, which reduces the side effects by injecting a coil in a way different from the existing one, AMC_{서울아산병원} said.

Using cerebral angiographic 3D imaging, Seo curled the microcatheter according to the location and characteristics of an aneurysm, directly adjusting the direction of coil injection, and performed coil embolization in six patients and followed up for six to nine months.

As a result, there was no neurological sequela such as paralysis, speech disturbance, cognitive impairment, and no recurrence.

In general, intracranial aneurysms are more likely to be cured after recurrence or complications even after six to nine months after coil embolization.

Also, coil embolization is known to have sufficient therapeutic effect if the coil is over 30 percent. The new treatment introduced by Professor Seo showed that the coil has an average of 31 percent injected into an aneurysm after the procedure.

"Intracranial Aneurysms are difficult to treat because they become easily clogged by coils escaping from an aneurysm after coil embolization,” said Professor Seo. "Injecting a coil into an aneurysm in a direction away from the anterior choroidal artery by curving the microcatheter can reduce the side effects while maintaining the therapeutic effect."