Endovascular treatment of subarachnoid arterial aneurysms in the acute period. Preliminary results.

The authors report their preliminary experience concerning the endovascular treatment of ruptured subarachnoid aneurysms during the acute phase in 9 patients. The endovascular approach was only used in Hunt and Hess grade IV or V patients, as an alternative to surgical clipping and in cases considered technically difficult for surgery (extremity of the basilar artery). No particular technical difficulties were encountered, except for a case with vasospasm. Further experience is needed to evaluate the benefit of this method during the acute phase.