A Korean research team said they found a new embolization technique to treat a brain aneurysm effectively.
Asan Medical Center said its research team -- led by Professors Suh Dae-chul and Song Yun-sun at the Neurointervention Clinic, Department of Radiology -- used a new “Hook technique” to insert the coil into the cerebral arteries of 14 patients who developed a cerebral aneurysm in the middle cerebral artery branch in the past two years. The results showed that the new surgical technique showed a significant treatment effect in 13 patients, the hospital said.
The existing coil embolization refers to injecting a catheter through the blood vessels in the groin to the site of the cerebral aneurysm and filling the coil to prevent aneurysm rupture.
If the cerebral aneurysm develops in the smaller vessel between the two branches of vessels, it is not easy to save the small blood vessel during the operation. To overcome the limitations of the coil embolization technique, the Suh-Song team developed Hook technique.
The researchers applied the new technique to 14 patients with an aneurysm in the middle cerebral artery branch who visited Asan Medical Center’s Neurointervention Clinic from 2016 to 2018 and conducted a 17-month follow-up.
The team obtained successful treatment results in 13 out of 14. Eleven had complete occlusion. Two had a residual cerebral aneurysm, but there was no particular problem in the 17-month observation.
In general, if complications or recurrences do not occur six to nine months after cerebral aneurysm coil embolization, it is highly likely that the patient can be cured entirely.
“As neuro-intervention medicine has evolved, we were able to find and apply a new embolization method to treat the aneurysm of the middle cerebral artery branch, which was difficult to treat,” Suh said. “We will continue to develop new neuro-interventional techniques to improve the success rate of the treatment of the aneurysm.”
The research team’s study was published in the latest issue of World Neurosurgery.