Doctors find new way to treat brain aneurysms

Brain aneurysms will affect 30,000 people this year.

That’s one person every 18 minutes at risk of dying or suffering a stroke.

But now, surgeons have a new way to save some of the hardest to treat patients.

Daniel Reyes started to get delirious and dizzy when he suffered through one.

“It felt like I had a migraine, but like there was a spoon digging outward,” Reyes said.

That’s what it feels like when having a brain aneurysm or a weakening blood vessel.

“A ruptured brain aneurysm is a deadly situation,” said Ricardo Hanel, a neurosurgeon.

Catching it before it ruptures is key.

Right now, doctors use surgical clipping, a tiny metal clip, to stop blood flow to it. They also use endovascular coiling, a soft platinum wire coiled up inside the aneurysm that seals off the aneurysm.

A pipeline flex embolization device patches the aneurysm from the inside.

And now, N.E.C.C. is a clinical trial using a newly developed patch to treat hard-to-reach brain aneurysms.

“So, think about they’re coming on the road. There’s a road going left going, right? The aneurysm is right on the middle of the fork, top of the fork,” Hanel said.

Hanal is the first physician in the U.S. clinical trial to use the contour neurovascular system to patch the aneurysms that occur at the branching points of the arteries.

The device is a nitinol mesh shaped like a wine glass or chalis that cuts off the blood to an aneurysm that is in danger of rupturing.

“If you find aneurysms before it bleeds, you can prevent a stroke that is potentially catastrophic, four of ten chance of dying. So, it’s phenomenal when we find this before they bleed, and we can treat them safely and eliminate their risk of stroke,” Hanel said.

Most brain aneurysms, if caught before rupturing are found in a cat scan or during a MRI.
Some patients may experience headaches or dizziness, but most don’t feel anything until it ruptures. The contour system is in a clinical trial being performed in 20 neuro-intervention centers across the country. It is not yet FDA approved, but it is already available in Europe and India.