Risk of Subarachnoid Hemorrhage After Surgical Treatment of Unruptured Cerebral Aneurysms

Background and Purpose—Recent progress in noninvasive imaging techniques has resulted in increased detection of unruptured aneurysms. Although many neurosurgeons advocate surgical intervention for such unruptured aneurysms, the long-term results of surgery for unruptured aneurysms have not been carefully investigated. Methods—We analyzed 173 consecutive patients who had unruptured intracranial saccular aneurysm(s) detected by angiography that was performed for reasons other than subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). Of those, 115 cases were surgically treated and studied. All patients were followed up for either SAH, repeat treatment of aneurysms, or death. The median follow-up period was 8.8 years. Results—Four of the 115 patients suffered SAH either from a de novo aneurysm (2) or from regrowth of clipped aneurysm (1), or from regrowth after wrapping (1). Additionally, 1 patient also suffered SAH from an unstudied basilar aneurysm. One patient was incidentally found to have de novo aneurysm and underwent reoper...