Infectious aneurysm clipping by an MRI/MRA wand-guided protocol. A case report and technical note

Infectious aneurysms are potentially deadly sequelae of multiple etiologies, typically associated with subacute bacterial endocarditis (SBE). Since these aneurysms tend to be distal, there are no consistent landmarks by which to localize them, in contrast to more typical aneurysms that occur on the circle of Willis or proximal, large cerebral vessel bifurcations. In addition, they tend to be extremely friable and may be obscured by blood if intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) has already occurred. These factors make clipping these aneurysms technically difficult, and searching for easily ruptured aneurysms without standard landmarks adds risk to the procedure. In this report, we describe the case of a 9-year-old boy with SBE and subsequent ICH secondary to a mycotic aneurysm. This aneurysm was localized to within millimeters by the MRI protocol described herein. The aneurysm was excised and the patient recovered without incident. Thus, MRI/MRA-guided frameless stereotaxy may be useful for localizing distal mycotic aneurysms, improving patient outcome by decreasing morbidity and mortality.