Objective: Recent studies on the natural history of unruptured intracranial aneurysms dictate that we reevaluate the risks and benefits of surgical intervention as it compares with the natural course. We analyzed the outcome of surgical clipping of a patient cohort with unruptured aneurysms as it compares with a 10 year nonclipping survival period on the basis of two previously published studies (International Study on Unruptured Intracranial Aneurysms and a study by Juvela et al. [36] from Helsinki).
Methods: Data on 148 unruptured aneurysms in 116 consecutive surgically treated patients were prospectively recorded and retrospectively analyzed. The overall majority were diagnosed with cerebral angiography. Data analyzed included aneurysmal properties and clinical outcomes including surgical related mortalities and morbidities. The observed outcomes were compared with the expected outcome of a 10 year nonclipping survival period if the patient cohort was included in recently reported studies on unruptured aneurysms. More than 1 year follow-up was available in 93.1% (108) of patients and follow-up cerebral angiography was performed in 80% (93) of patients.
Results: Mean age was 53.57 years. There were 25 (16.8%) small aneurysms (less than 7 mm), 70 (47.2%) aneurysms 7 to 12 mm in size, 41 (27.70%) large (13-24 mm), and 12 (8.10%) giant (>25 mm) aneurysms. Posterior circulation aneurysm comprised 13.51%. One hundred forty-three (96.62%) aneurysms were successfully clipped, and 3.37% were either wrapped or later coiled. Surgical-related mortality was 0.82% (1 patient because of air embolism). Surgical related permanent morbidity was 3.44% (4 patients) and transient surgical-related mild morbidities was 7.7% (9 patients). Immediate postsurgical good outcome (Glasgow Outcome Score = 4-5) was 87.93% (102 patients) and 95.68% in 3 months (111 patients). At 1 year, the modified Rankin scale scores were 0 to I = 102, II = 3, III = 2, IV = 1, and V = 0. Residual aneurysms were seen in none of the postoperative angiograms (93 patients). Using the chi method, the comparison of the expected to the observed mortality and morbidity revealed a statistically significant difference in the mortality in favor of surgical clipping (P = 0.034 when compared with the International Study on Unruptured Intracranial Aneurysms and P = 0.05 when compared with the Juvela et al. [36] study). There was no statistically significant difference in the permanent morbidity.
Conclusion: Studies on natural history of unruptured intracranial aneurysms suggest 10 year cumulative bleeding-related mortality and severe morbidity of no less than 7.5%. In our study, surgical clipping resulted in an 0.8% rate of mortality and 3.4% permanent morbidity. This suggests that surgical clipping has the potential of a superior outcome to the natural history of patients who have an estimated life expectancy of no less than 10 years.