Intracranial aneurysms; in need of early diagnostic and treatment using bio- and nanotechnology

Intracranial aneurysms are present in 1-5% of population and can be described as "ticking time bombs" that can go off at any time and cause serious harms including permanent disability and death. There are two routinely practiced treatment options for this disease; endovascular coiling and surgical clipping. In recent years other promising methods, such as stent-assisted coiling, flow diverting devices and Onyx embolic agent, have also been developed and tested. The studies reviewed here suggest endovascular coiling to be the most commonly chosen treatment method and that there are reservations on using the newly developed techniques, despite studies suggesting their safety and effectiveness. Therefore, it is now becoming clear that a competent management system, in which treatment methods are chosen to best fit the characterisation of the patient and the aneurysm, should be developed in order to effectively diagnose and treat intracranial aneurysms. One way to develop such a system could be through the advancements of nanotechnology and smart materials. Neurosurgery, like many other areas of the medical field, is moving towards adopting the exciting and rapidly developing technologies based on nanomaterials as the nano-approach to detect and treat intracranial aneurysms could offer surgical opportunities that were more invasive or out of rich at the microneurosurgery level.