Neck-bridge device for endovascular treatment of wide-neck bifurcation aneurysms: initial experience

To report the authors' initial experience in treating patients with wide-neck aneurysms with assistance from a recently developed neck-bridge device (TriSpan; Target Therapeutics/Boston Scientific, Fremont, Calif).

Twenty-five patients were examined. Aneurysms were most frequently at the basilar bifurcation (n = 19). Sixteen aneurysms were treated electively: six aneurysms that recurred after coil-only embolization and 10 nontreated aneurysms (including four that had failed coil-only embolization). Nine aneurysms were treated acutely following subarachnoid hemorrhage. All lesions except one had a wide neck. A dual-catheter technique was used in 23 patients. Immediate angiographic results, technical incidents, and complications were recorded. Follow-up angiography was performed in 16 patients. Clinical follow-up ranged from 1 to 12 months.

Neck-bridge device-assisted coil packing was successfully performed in 23 lesions, with complete obliteration in three, residual necks in 13, and a minimal residual sac in seven patients. Parent vessel protection failed, with coil protrusion and arterial occlusion, in one of these patients. Other complications that were not directly related to use of the neck-bridge device included retroperitoneal hematoma, rebleeding, coil perforation, and transient embolic arterial occlusion. One patient died of vasospasm and heart failure. Follow-up angiography revealed complete obliteration in four, a residual neck in one, a persistent residual sac in four, and recurrent aneurysm in seven patients. One patient had a small occipital infarction 5 weeks after treatment.

The described neck-bridge device is useful for assisting coil embolization of wide-neck bifurcation aneurysms.