Background: The microsurgical treatment of paraclinoid aneurysms can be challenging due to the anatomical structures that surround them.
Objective: This study compared the clinical and angiographic outcomes of unruptured paraclinoid aneurysms treated with enterprise (EP) stents and low-profile visualized intraluminal support (LVIS) stents.
Methods: A retrospective analysis of the clinical and radiological data from 133 patients with 139 unruptured paraclinoid aneurysms, who received an EP or an LVIS stent between January 2017 and June 2021 at Taizhou People's Hospital, was performed. Immediate postoperative and follow-up angiographic results were analyzed retrospectively using the Raymond-Roy occlusion classification (RROC). Any complications following the procedure and the patients' clinical outcomes were noted.
Results: Enterprise stents were used for stent-assisted coiling in 64 patients with 68 aneurysms and LVIS stents were used in 69 patients with 71 aneurysms. Both groups exhibited an increase in the proportion of aneurysms meeting the criteria for RROC class I, but the LVIS group demonstrated a higher rate of aneurysms meeting the class I criteria compared with the EP group, both on immediate postoperative angiography (45.1% vs. 11.8%, p< 0.001) and on follow-up angiography (94.9% vs. 80.6%, p= 0.025). Procedure-related complications were experienced by 9.4% of patients in the EP group (one coil prolapse, two parent artery occlusions, and three thromboembolic events), and 8.7% of patients in the LVIS group (three stent-related thrombosis and three thromboembolic events). There were no statistically significant differences between the two groups in relation to perioperative complications (p= 0.746) or favorable clinical outcomes (p= 0.492).
Conclusion: A greater proportion of aneurysms in the LVIS group met the criteria for RROC class I compared with the EP group. There is no significant difference in procedural complications or clinical outcomes between EP and LVIS stents. Although no aneurysm recurrence was observed during the short follow-up period, continued monitoring is required.
Keywords: LVIS stent; Paraclinoid aneurysm; enterprise stent; stent-assisted coiling.