Intraoperative digital subtraction angiography: a review of 112 consecutive examinations

To examine the effect of intraoperative angiography on neurosurgery and angiographic technical success, safety, and accuracy.

Angiographic studies, surgical reports, and hospital records were reviewed retrospectively for 112 consecutive procedures in which intraoperative angiography was performed during neurosurgery. The results of conventional postoperative angiograms in 28 of the 112 procedures were also reviewed. A portable digital subtraction angiography unit was used for all patients. Decisions in the operating room were based on review of stored videotaped images.

Eighteen studies were obtained in 14 patients after arteriovenous malformation resection. Unsuspected residual nidus was identified and resected in 3 patients. The intraoperative angiogram also altered therapy for 2 patients undergoing staged resections of arteriovenous malformations. Sixty-six studies were performed after aneurysm clipping, with clinically significant changes in surgical therapy made in 5 patients. Of 28 examinations after carotid endarterectomy, 3 led to revision. Two complications of angiography occurred. One led to a permanent neurologic deficit, yielding a complication rate of 1.5% for stroke. Two examinations could not be completed because of technical factors. Two false-negative examinations were identified on postoperative studies. One patient with a normal intraoperative study after carotid endarterectomy thrombosed the repaired internal carotid artery after surgery.

Intraoperative angiography altered surgery in 13 of 112 procedures on 104 patients. This study supports the use of intraoperative angiography in arteriovenous malformation resection and in complex aneurysm surgery, but not for routine carotid endarterectomy.