gms | German Medical Science

56. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie e. V. (DGNC)
3èmes journées françaises de Neurochirurgie (SFNC)

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie e. V.
Société Française de Neurochirurgie

07. bis 11.05.2005, Strasbourg

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De novo aneurysms – is a long-term follow-up after treatment of cerebral aneurysms necessary?

De novo-Aneurysmen - ist eine Kontrolle des Langzeitverlaufes nach Behandlung von zerebralen Aneurysmen erforderlich?

Meeting Abstract

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  • corresponding author T. Martens - Klinik für Neurochirurgie, Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf
  • M. Westphal - Klinik für Neurochirurgie, Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf
  • J. Regelsberger - Klinik für Neurochirurgie, Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie. Société Française de Neurochirurgie. 56. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie e.V. (DGNC), 3èmes journées françaises de Neurochirurgie (SFNC). Strasbourg, 07.-11.05.2005. Düsseldorf, Köln: German Medical Science; 2005. DocP065

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.egms.de/en/meetings/dgnc2005/05dgnc0333.shtml

Published: May 4, 2005

© 2005 Martens et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.

Outline

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Objective

Once a cerebral aneurysm has been successfully treated and other aneurysms have been excluded, long-term follow-up is rarely performed. This strategy has to be questioned seriously as de novo aneurysms are reported with increasing frequency.

Results

5 out of 238 patients (2.1%) were diagnosed with a de novo aneurysm 2-24 years after treatment of subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) in our center since 2000. In two patients incidental aneurysms were found when MRI was indicated for severe headaches, three patients were in good clinical condition after the first treatment and had a second SAH. One of these patients died, one was severely handicapped and the third recovered well.

Reviewing the literature, the incidence of new aneurysms is reported to range from 0.9% and 1.8% per yea, but the rate may be far underestimated as angiography or MRI is not routinely repeated over years. Hypertension and a positive family history are believed to be high risk factors for developing cerebral aneurysms.

The published data underline that cerebral aneurysms have to be understood as a systemic disease of cerebral arteries, where new aneurysms have to be expected over the years. With MR-angiography there is a non-invasive tool that is useful for follow-up.

Conclusions

The often life-threatening course in these patients justify a long-term follow-up, which we think should be performed by non-invasive MR-angiography at two year intervals in order to provide the best treatment for non-ruptured de novo aneurysms.