Neuronavigation-assisted microsurgical clipping of pericallosal aneurysms: A single-center retrospective study

Surgical clipping of pericallosal artery aneurysm is technically challenging since it is fragile and tends to rupture accidentally during the operation. This study was aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of MRI-neuronavigation-assisted microsurgery for pericallosal artery aneurysm clipping. Forty patients diagnosed with pericallosal artery aneurysms who underwent craniotomy clipping were enrolled. Among these patients, 18 cases accepted routine surgical approaches, while another 22 cases accepted MRI-neuronavigation-assisted microsurgery. Design of craniotomy, operation pathway, operation duration, intraoperative cerebral protection and superior drainage vein protection were analyzed retrospectively. All the 40 cases underwent aneurysm clipping by pre-coronal inter-hemispheric approach, and all aneurysms were clipped completely confirmed by postoperative CTA or DSA. During the operations, MRI-neuronavigation provided precise spatial configuration of pericallosal artery aneurysms, and allowed accurate and real-time identification for the adjacent arteries and brain structures, and no aneurysms ruptured accidentally during the operations. Functional cortex and draining veins were protected well. Compared with routine surgical approaches, the MRI-neuronavigation-assisted microsurgery showed less operation duration, few adverse events induced by accurate location for aneurysm and less invasion to draining veins. Therefore, MRI-neuronavigation-assisted microsurgery could precisely locate the pericallosal artery aneurysm, optimize surgical approaches, and help to cerebral protection. It is expected to reduce the surgical risk and improve the precision and security, can be regarded as an effective technology in the clipping of pericallosal artery aneurysms.