Complementary Management of Residual Intracranial Aneurysms after Endovascular or Surgical Treatment

Objective: The purpose of this paper is to report our experiences in managing seventeen cases of residual intracranial aneurysms following surgical or endovascular treatment and discuss the incidence of residual aneurysms, the indications and technique of retreatment of residual aneurysms. Methods: During a period of 42 months, we treated 391 aneurysms in 339 patients with microsurgical clipping or GDC embolization as a primary treatment. In 39 of them, follow-up angiography revealed residual aneurysms and seventeen of whom were retreated. There were eleven cases in ACoA, three cases in distal ICA, one, in each of MCA, ACA and basilar artery. We reviewed retrospectively the clinical notes, operation records and cerebral angiograms of seventeen patients who had been treated for residual aneurysms. Results: Complementary treatment was performed in 8 cases by means of surgery and in 9 cases by means of GDC embolization. There were eleven females and six males with an age variation between 29 and 78 years. The mean duration of angiographic follow-up was 17.3 months. Of the seventeen cases that were treated for residual aneurysms, fourteen achieved complete occlusion. Of 17 retreated patients, fifteen patients had good recovery according to the Glasgow Outcome Scale. Conclusion: When occlusion after endovascular or surgical treatment is incomplete, a new multidisciplinary approach should be carried out. Given our experiences, we recommend coil embolization of the choice in cases that the residual aneurysmal neck had been narrowed by previous clipping. On the other hand, if the residual aneurysm has enough space to clip but not enough to coil, we recommend the microsurgical clipping.