Cerebral aneurysm and Behcet's disease

Introduction.- Mostly venous (95% of all vascular complications), and less frequently arterial (2 to 7% of all cases), vascular complications are comm onplace in Behcet's disease (23 to 64% of the patients, depending on the se ries). Arterial complications are stenosis, occlusions and especially sever e due to their unpredictable rupture risk, aneurysms. Intracranial aneurysm s associated with Behcet's disease are exceptional. Until now, only ten cas es have been published. Exegesis. - We report the case of a 36-year-old patient of Armenian origin in whom the diagnosis of Behcet's disease was made after a subarachnoid hem orrhage caused by the rupture of a left superior cerebellar artery aneurysm . The endovascular treatment of the aneurysm was associated with an immunos uppressive treatment consisting of cyclophosphamide, corticoids and colchic ine. Within a 6-month period of follow up the evolution has been favorable. This is the first published case report of Behcet's disease associated wit h an aneurysm of the posterior circulation treated endovascularly. A review of the literature is also included. Conclusion. - Intracranial aneurysms are an exceptional but nevertheless se vere localization of vascular complications in Behcet's disease. As in all other arterial lesions, recurrences are frequent. The treatment involves su rgical or endovascular treatment that should be associated with corticoids and immunosuppressive therapy. Colchicine is useful for the prevention of r elapses. (C) 2001 Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS.