An Institutional Experience and Literature Review on Iatrogenic Major Vascular Injury in Neurosurgery: Proposal of a...

Major vessel injury is among the most dreaded complications of any neurosurgical procedure. Once intraoperatively tamponaded, it can present in the form of pseudoaneurysm, dissecting aneurysm or complete occlusion of vessel. These injuries are often associated with very high morbidity and mortality. The literature available on this topic is limited and our understanding remains limited.

In this article, we present our surgical experience with iatrogenic aneurysms and present a review of literature.

We conducted a retrospective analysis of all patients with major vessel injury during surgery from a prospectively maintained database from January 2012 to February 2020.

A total of 15 patients developed iatrogenic aneurysms following a major vessel injury during various neurosurgical procedures. The most common vessel injured was vertebral artery (n = 9) in craniovertebral junction (CVJ) anomalies and ossification of posterior longitudinal ligament (OPLL) followed by internal carotid artery injury (n = 5) in sellar and parasellar pathologies. One patient developed basilar artery injury during endoscopic third ventriculostomy (ETV). Eight patients had pseudoaneurysm and seven had dissecting aneurysm with or without complete thrombosis of the involved artery. A total of two patients died after vascular injury and remaining thirteen patients survived and discharged.

The adage "prevention is better than cure" applies most aptly in such cases. Any major vessel injury should be followed by immediate angiography and subsequent early management. The endovascular management is more favorable as these aneurysms are difficult to clip due to the absence of a neck and fragile wall.