Neurointerventionists Expand Research to Quality of Life in Aneurysm Patients Following Minimally Invasive Coiling...( ...),Health

Coiled Patients Compare More Closely to Normal Population Than They Do to Patients Who Previously Underwent Traditional Clipping Surgery

BOCA RATON, Fla., July 28 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Since the groundbreaking 2002 ISAT International Subarachnoid Aneurysm Trial (ISAT) - which ultimately was halted due to overwhelming evidence that minimally invasive coiling (an endovascular therapy) was, on average, superior to traditional surgical clipping in the treatment of brain aneurysms - many studies have continued to prove the short- and long-term viability of this procedure. Further technical refinements for coiling are underway all over the world.

But while the efficacy of minimally invasive coiling has been proven many times over in the case of intracranial aneurysms (a bulge in the artery wall which can suddenly burst, leading to bleeding in the brain that may result in severe disability, or even death), less is known about the psychosocial functioning of these patients after undergoing the coiling treatment. In an abstract presented yesterday at the Society of NeuroInterventional Surgery (SNIS) 6th Annual Meeting in Boca Raton, FL, Antonio DeSimone, M.D., a neuroradiologist at the "San Giovanni Bosco" Hospital in Naples, Italy, shared data that indicates that while patients whose aneurysms were successfully treated with coiling may still need psychological support because of this life-changing event, this need is seen to a lesser degree than was previously reported after traditional surgical clipping. The study represents the largest case series to date addressing patient quality of life following coiling.

"Now that coiling has, in essence, reached early adulthood, and we are comfortable with the significant number of successfully treated patients," says DeSimone, "we are being called upon to now focus on subjects rather than simply the accumula
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