Treatment Options
Minimally Invasive Treatments for Aneurysms:
Less Risk, Faster Recovery, Lifesaving Results
The Holy Cross Hospital’s multidisciplinary team of neuroscience experts and state-of-the-art facilities provide patients with brain aneurysm advanced treatment options, and care that puts a premium on compassion, safety and optimal outcomes.
Our patients benefit from the combined expertise of neuroradiologists, neurologists and neurosurgeons who work collaboratively to precisely diagnose and treat brain aneurysms.
Treatment plans focus on what is best for each patient. For some, watchful waiting or medication may be appropriate. Others will require open surgery, called surgical clipping. But many more patients today are candidates for minimally invasive neurosurgery using endovascular neurosurgery techniques.
Endovascular Neurosurgery: Reducing Complications
Endovascular neurosurgery, or interventional radiology surgery, are procedures that rely on state-of-the-art techniques in interventional radiology, featuring biplane angiography that creates three-dimensional views of brain vessels to precisely pinpoint abnormalities that need treatment.
These images allow clinicians to use minimally invasive neurosurgery techniques that reduce risk of dangerous complications. In these procedures, catheters are introduced through small incisions in the body and moved through vessels to precise target areas where treatment is delivered.
At Holy Cross Hospital, neuroradiologists are performing the most advanced minimally invasive procedures, including:
- Endovascular coiling procedure— Coiling treatment for aneurysms is used to stem the flow of blood for aneurysms that have ruptured. During this procedure, the neuroradiologist threads a catheter through a small incision in the patient’s femoral artery in the thigh. Using real time x-ray guidance, he travels through the vessel to the aneurysm and delivers tiny platinum coils, which are packed into the aneurysm to prevent blood from entering its cavity.
- Endovascular stent repair—This procedure is one type of un-ruptured brain aneurysm surgery used to prevent rupture. Through a small incision in the femoral artery, the neuroradiologist threads a catheter and travels the vessel to the aneurysm. A stent is put into place to seal off the aneurysm, divert blood flow, and allow the aneurysm to naturally clot.
In some cases, a balloon is threaded into the vessel, and inflated to open any narrowing and allow normal blood flow. This can help to prevent stroke, a common complication for patients with aneurysms.
Following their procedures, patients are cared for in Holy Cross Hospital’s Neuro Critical Care unit, exclusively for patients with critical brain or spine injury or illness, and staffed by a team of specially trained neuro-critical care nurses who provide intensive care and support around-the-clock.