Clinical results and pathological findings of stent-assisted coil embolization for basilar artery trunk dissecting aneurysms

Stent-assisted coil embolization is a new method for treating dissecting or fusiform aneurysm, especially the aneurysms arising from the basilar artery trunk or dominant vertebral artery. At present, this technique is considered as an effective treatment option to obliterate such aneurysm keeping the parent artery patent. Several authors reported the effectiveness and excellent radiological result of this treatment, but fewer reports focus on the limitations of this technique. We treated two patients with a basilar artery trunk dissecting aneurysm with this technique. Transient ischemic symptoms were observed in one patient and haemorrhagic and thromboembolic complications were observed the other.We lost the latter patient due to postoperative complications, and the pathological finding was achieved by autopsy. We report the clinical and pathological findings in the two cases and investigate the efficacy and limitations of this technique.