SACCULAR INTRACRANIAL ANEURYSMS - ENDOVASCULAR TREATMENT WITH MECHANICAL DETACHABLE SPIRAL COILS

PURPOSE: To evaluate endovascular treatment of saccular intracranial a neurysms with mechanical detachable spiral coils. MATERIALS AND METHOD S: Fifty-three patients with 56 saccular aneurysms underwent endovascu lar treatment with spiral coils. All but five had symptomatic subarach noid hemorrhage staged according to the Hunt and Hess classification a s follows: stage IV or V (n = 20), stage III (n = 10), stage I or II ( n = 20), and stage 0 (asymptomatic [n = 6]). RESULTS: Forty-seven aneu rysms were occluded (100% occlusion) on follow-up angiograms with the following time distribution: 24 months for six aneurysms (six patients ), 12 months for 14 aneurysms (11 patients), 6 months for 13 aneurysms (13 patients), 4 months for four aneurysms (four patients), and only immediate postprocedure study for 16 aneurysms (16 patients)(excludes two deaths and one failure). CONCLUSION: In this relatively small grou p, endovascular treatment with mechanical detachable spiral coils had a success rate of 90%, and it appears to be a rapid, reliable, and rel atively safe technique in the treatment of life-threatening subarachno id hemorrhage.