Neurosurgery Endovascular Coiling
BIDMC offers endovascular coiling, called GDC-coil embolization, a minimally invasive, non-surgical procedure to treat brain aneurysms. Left untreated, a brain aneurysm, which is a bubble or weak sac that forms in a cerebral artery, can leak or rupture, resulting in death or neurologic injury. For patients who qualify, coiling offers new alternatives to neurosurgical clipping and craniotomy (skull surgery). With the patient under general anesthesia, and using X-ray roadmap guidance, the surgeon navigates a microcatheter up through the patient's femoral (groin) artery and into the cerebral artery where the aneurysm is located. Tiny platinum coils are threaded through the miniature 0.014-inch microcatheter. The coils, a variety of shapes and sizes, completely fill the aneurysm, divert the blood, stop the leak and eliminate the danger of rupture.
