Treatment of Cerebral Aneurysms With Flow Divertors: Long Term Results in an In Vivo Model

Subarachnoid hemorrhagic stroke is a devastating illness with a 30-day mortality rate of 45% and is mostly caused due to the rupture of an intracranial aneurysm. Although these aneurysms are currently treated surgically by clipping, or, endovascularly by coiling and stent-assisted coiling, the feasibility of successfully treating aneurysms solely by the placement of an intravascular flow-diverting mesh across the aneurysm neck was established more than a decade ago [1]. Flow divertors disrupt the momentum exchange between the parent artery and aneurysm and significantly reduce intraaneurysmal hydrodynamic vorticity. The resultant flow stasis promotes thrombus formation within the aneurysm sac, which eventually matures into fibrotic tissue, leading to the exclusion of the aneurysm from the circulation. With the increased use of stents in the intracranial circulation, cases where coiling is not feasible, or is staged as a secondary procedure, are providing clinical evidence of the successful treatment of aneurysms with stents alone [2,3]. Such reports are sporadic and, moreover, the devices used are not designed to be flow divertors. Methodological evidence of the performance of appropriately designed flow divertors in treating cerebral aneurysms is currently unavailable.