Intracranial Aneurysms: Treatment and Complications

An intracranial aneurysm is a focal bulge in a cerebral artery wall that, if it ruptures, causes aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage — a sudden, life-threatening bleed that carries substantial mortality and leaves many survivors with lasting neurological deficits. Researchers study how abnormal hemodynamic forces such as wall shear stress contribute to aneurysm formation, growth, and rupture, and how interventions — whether neurosurgical clipping or endovascular techniques like coiling and flow diversion — can seal an aneurysm before or after it bleeds. A central challenge after rupture is cerebral vasospasm and delayed cerebral ischemia, in which the arteries paradoxically narrow in the days following the initial bleed, causing secondary strokes that are often harder to prevent than the rupture itself. Active research is working to identify which unruptured aneurysms truly warrant treatment, to improve the durability of endovascular devices, and to find therapies that reliably prevent the delayed vascular injury responsible for much of the long-term disability.

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Keywords

Aneurysmal Subarachnoid HemorrhageIntracranial AneurysmsEndovascular TreatmentCerebral VasospasmHemodynamicsNeurosurgical Clipping