The history of neurosurgical procedures for moyamoya disease

Almost 50 years of research on moyamoya disease (1957-2006) has led to the development of a variety of surgical and medical options for its management in affected patients. Some of these options have been abandoned, others have served as the basis for the development of better procedures, and many are still in use today. Investigators studying moyamoya disease during this period have concluded that the best treatment is planned after studying each patient's presenting symptoms and angiographic pattern. The surgical procedures proposed for the treatment of moyamoya disease can be classified into three categories: direct arterial bypasses, indirect arterial bypasses, and other methods. Direct bypass methods that have been proposed are vein grafts and extracranial-intracranial anastomosis (superficial temporal artery-middle cerebral artery [STA-MCA] anastomosis and occipital artery-MCA anastomosis). Indirect techniques that have been proposed are the following: 1) encephaloduroarteriosynangiosis; 2) encephalomyosynangiosis; 3) encephalomyoarteriosynangiosis; 4) multiple cranial bur holes; and 5) transplantation of omentum. Other options such as cervical carotid sympathectomy and superior cervical ganglionectomy have also been proposed. In this paper the authors describe the history of the development of surgical techniques for treating moyamoya disease.