Brain Aneurysm Treatments

Although one may prefer treatment for peace of mind, any treatment option has some associated risk. In some cases, more aggressive treatment might not be the best choice. The factors that favor treatment (e.g. risk of rupture) should be weighed against those that favor non-treatment (e.g. risks inherent in the procedure).

A major international study suggests that rupture rates of some small unruptured aneurysms without symptoms are quite low and do not justify the risks of treatment (The International Study of Unruptured Intracranial Aneurysms Investigators, 1998 cited in Johnston et al., 2000). For these cases, the choice might be a surveillance program as opposed to immediate intervention. This would involve annual check-ups to monitor blood pressure, cholesterol and other medical indicators. Doing regular scans or imaging examinations to ensure the aneurysm has not substantially grown or changed would also be indicated.