Treatments and Locations

Treatments and Locations

• Endovascular embolization (or coiling). Using a catheter inserted into an artery in your groin or wrist and guided to your brain, a neurointerventionalist places tiny detachable coils into the aneurysm to fill it. This blocks blood flow into the aneurysm and causes blood to clot inside it, thereby sealing the aneurysm off.
• Surgical clipping. A neurosurgeon places a tiny clamp at the base of the aneurysm, to exclude it from the brain circulation. This clamp prevents the aneurysm from receiving blood flow, so that it can no longer grow or burst, and instead shrinks and is absorbed. This can also keep an aneurysm that has recently hemorrhaged from bleeding again.
• Flow diversion is an endovascular technique whereby instead of placing a device inside the aneurysm sac, such as with coiling, a neurointerventionalist places the device in the parent blood vessel to divert blood flow away from the aneurysm itself.