'Y' stents effective for difficult-to-treat brain aneurysms

Date: Sep-10-2013A stent-assisted approach for difficult-to-treat brain aneurysms is reported in the September issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.

Dr. Kyle M. Fargen of University of Florida and colleagues evaluated the use of "Y-stent coiling" to block off (occlude) aneurysms in 45 patients at seven U.S. hospitals. The stent-assisted technique was used for difficult-to-treat aneurysms located at the bifurcation (branching) of two blood vessels.

Y-stent coiling produced "excellent" initial aneurysm occlusion in 84 percent of patients. On angiograms performed at ten months' follow-up, the occlusion rate had increased to 92 percent. Three patients required repeat treatment.

The Y-stent approach provides neurosurgeons with a valuable alternative treatment for aneurysms that would be difficult or impossible to treat with surgery. Based on their findings, Y-stent coiling offers "low complication rates and excellent clinical and angiographic outcomes," Dr. Fargen and coauthors conclude.

A Multicenter Study of Stent-Assisted Coiling of Cerebral Aneurysms With a Y Configuration, doi: 10.1227/NEU.0000000000000015

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