Endovascular embolization of ruptured and unruptured posterior circulation aneurysms. A multi-factor analysis.

AIM Complete aneurysm obliteration reduces the risk of rebleeding and is an important goal of the aneurysm treatment. MATERIAL AND METHODS A retrospective analysis of 63 patients undergoing endovascular treatment of posterior circulation aneurysms. The occlusion rate was stratified to three groups: complete, incomplete and partial. In the analysis compared the influence of the selected characteristics: age, sex, WFNS grade, aneurysm location, size of the aneurysm dome and neck, neck to dome ratio, on the effectiveness of embolization in each group. A multi-factor analysis with probit model and linear regression was applied to assess the impact of all characteristics on the complete occlusion. RESULTS In the series of 63 single aneurysms, 51 were ruptured and 12 unruptured aneurysms. Complete occlusion was achieved in 36 (57.1%), incomplete in 15 (23.8%), partial in 12 (19%) patients. In patients with the neck size of 1-2 mm the complete occlusion was in 75% (24/32) incomplete in 12,5% (4/32), while when the neck size was 2-4 mm these rates were 38.7% (12/31) and 29% (9/31) respectively. The predictor of total occlusion in probit and linear regression model was only one independent variable, the narrow-neck size. CONCLUSION Multi-factor analysis found that the strongest predictor of the complete occlusion is the aneurysm neck size.