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Risk–benefit analysis of the treatment of unruptured intracranial aneurysms

Department of Neurosurgery, Newcastle General Hospital, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
P Mitchell
patrick.mitchell{at}ncl.ac.uk

Objectives: To determine under what circumstances repair of unruptured intracranial aneurysms may be beneficial.

Methods: A life expectancy analysis of patients with unruptured aneurysms with and without repair based on prospective data from the International Study of Unruptured Intracranial Aneurysms (ISUIA).

Results: Life years are lost at all ages by repairing anterior circulation aneurysms under 7 mm in diameter in patients with no history of a subarachnoid haemorrhage from another aneurysm (incidental). For all other aneurysms the number of life years saved by repair is dependent on the patient’s age at the time when repair is undertaken. Between 2 and 40 years are saved by repairing aneurysms in patients aged 20 years. These benefits fall to 0 when remaining life expectancy falls below 15–35 years, corresponding to the age range of 45–70 years.

Conclusions: Repair of unruptured aneurysms benefits patients harbouring them by improving life expectancy except in certain circumstances. The exceptions are patients with remaining life expectancy less than 15–35 years or aged 45–70 (depending on aneurysm size and location) and patients with aneurysms of the anterior circulation under 7 mm in diameter with no history of a previous subarachnoid haemorrhage. These results are based on the findings of the ISUIA and are dependent on their accuracy.

Abbreviations: ISUIA, International Study of Unruptured Intracranial Aneurysms; SAH, subarachnoid haemorrhage

Keywords: risk–benefit analysis; unruptured intracranial aneurysm

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