Long-term outcome of surgical treatment of intracavernous giant aneurysms.

A number of approaches have been proposed for the treatment of intracavernous giant aneurysms. In the present study, we have analyzed long-term surgical outcome of 27 consecutive cases of our experience. All the cases were unruptured and symptomatic, showing symptoms such as extraocular movement disorder or visual disturbances. Thirteen cases were male and 14 cases were female. The age of the patients ranged between 11 and 75 years (average 52.2 years) and follow-up periods were between 1 and 20 years (average 7.7 years). Abducens nerve was distributed in 20 cases, oculomotor nerve in 12 cases, optic nerve in six cases, trigeminal nerve in six cases, and trochlear nerve in five cases. In addition to conventional angiography, three-dimensional computed tomographic angiography, balloon test occlusion (BTO), slow injection angiography, aneurysmography, and single photon emission computed tomography with BTO were used to determine a method of treatment. Therapeutic modalities of the present series were as follows: four cases were unoperated, common carotid artery ligation was performed in eight cases, internal carotid artery (IC) ligation in three cases, IC ligation plus superficial temporal artery (STA)--middle cerebral artery (MCA) anastomosis in four cases, IC ligation plus high flow vein bypass in three cases, IC trapping plus STA-MCA anastomosis in three cases, and direct clipping in two cases. Although two cases showed early and late ischemic complications, other cases demonstrated improvement of cranial nerve dysfunction relatively soon after surgical treatment and long-term outcome was generally good. It is concluded that good long-term surgical outcome is obtained for intracavernous giant aneurysms by selecting adequate surgical treatment based upon careful preoperative evaluation of these aneurysms using sophisticated diagnostic methods.