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Biomedical subjects

V V Halbach

Publications and source records attributed to V V Halbach.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Endovascular management of extracranial carotid artery dissection achieved using stent angioplasty.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Dissection of the carotid artery can, in certain cases, lead to significant stenosis, occlusion, or pseudoaneurysm formation, with subsequent hemodynamic and embolic infarcts, despite anticoagulant therapy. We sought to determine the therapeutic value of stent-supported angioplasty retrospectively in this subset of patients who are poor candidates for medical therapy. METHODS: Five men and five women (age range, 37-83 years; mean age, 51.2 years) with dissection of the internal (n=9) and common (n=1) carotid artery were successfully treated with percutaneous endovascular balloon angioplasty and stent placement. The etiology was spontaneous in five, iatrogenic in three, and traumatic in two. Seven of the treated lesions were left-sided and three were right-sided. RESULTS: The treatment significantly improved dissection-related stenosis from 74+/-5.5% to 5.5+/-2.8%. Two occlusive dissections were successfully recanalized using microcatheter techniques during the acute phase. Multiple overlapping stents were needed in four patients to eliminate the inflow zone and false lumen and establish an angiographically smooth outline within the true lumen. There was one case of retroperitoneal hemorrhage, but there were no procedural transient ischemic attacks (TIAs), minor or major strokes, or deaths (0%). Clinical outcome at latest follow-up (16.5+/-1.9 months) showed significant improvements compared with pretreatment modified Rankin score (0.7+/-0.3 vs 1.8+/-0.44) and Barthel index (99.5+/-0.5 vs 80.5+/-8.9). One delayed stroke occurred in a treated patient with contralateral carotid occlusion following a hypotensive uterine hemorrhage at 8 months; the remaining nine patients have remained free of TIA or stroke. CONCLUSION: In select cases of carotid dissection associated with critical hemodynamic insufficiency or thromboembolic events that occur despite medical therapy, endovascular stent placement appears to be a safe and effective method of restoring vessel lumen integrity, with good clinical outcome.

Adult↗

Endovascular treatment of cerebral artery aneurysms during pregnancy: report of three cases.

Historically, surgical management of cerebral aneurysms during pregnancy has been controversial. Debate originally focused on early versus late intervention, before or after delivery of the fetus. More recently, treatment has centered on rapid intervention. We describe the endovascular treatment of cerebral artery aneurysms with Guglielmi detachable coils in three pregnant women.

Adult↗

Primary stenting for high-grade basilar artery stenosis.

We report two patients with symptomatic high-grade stenosis of the basilar artery refractory to appropriate maximal medical therapy in whom endovascular stenting was performed successfully without preliminary balloon angioplasty. Excellent angiographic results were achieved and there were no procedural or periprocedural complications. The patients were asymptomatic and neurologically intact at a mean clinical follow-up of 6.5 months. Primary stenting of basilar artery stenosis may be an alternative to balloon angioplasty for patients with symptomatic lesions refractory to medical therapy or in whom anticoagulation is contraindicated.

Aged↗

Endovascular therapy of traumatic injuries of the intracranial cerebral arteries.

Traumatic intracranial arterial injuries represent uncommon complications of both closed-head injury and penetrating head trauma. These injuries include arterial dissections, pseudoaneurysms, and fistulas, both direct and indirect. Although these lesions may be identified while still asymptomatic, they usually present in a delayed fashion with intracranial hemorrhage, focal cerebral ischemia, or, occasionally, severe epistaxis. Endovascular therapy has assumed a major role in the management of this diverse group of lesions. Embolization of pseudoaneurysms with balloons or detachable coils, the use of embolic particles for small arterial injuries, and large vessel occlusion with detachable balloons represent current treatment strategies that have evolved over the past three decades. Angioplasty and stent deployment may have a future role to play in the management of arterial dissection. Principles of neurologic critical care that minimize secondary brain injury are essential adjuncts in the management of these patients before, during, and after endovascular treatment.

Arteriovenous Fistula↗

Endovascular stenting of an acutely thrombosed basilar artery: technical case report and review of the literature.

OBJECTIVE AND IMPORTANCE: The goal of this report was to describe the successful percutaneous endovascular use of a Gianturco-Roubin-2 coronary stent in the treatment of an acute atherothrombotic occlusion of the basilar artery. To our knowledge, the percutaneous endovascular deployment of an intra-arterial stent for the treatment of an acute atherothrombotic occlusion of the basilar artery and the percutaneous endovascular placement of a Gianturco-Roubin-2 stent in the basilar artery have not been previously reported. CLINICAL PRESENTATION: An 83-year-old man presented with a recurrent, transient, locked-in syndrome resulting from a lower basilar artery occlusion caused by vertebrobasilar thrombosis superimposed on severe proximal basilar artery atheromatous stenosis. INTERVENTION: After successful superselective intra-arterial thrombolysis of the vertebrobasilar clot, balloon angioplasty of the underlying basilar artery stenosis was performed, without significant angiographic improvement. Percutaneous endovascular deployment of a Gianturco-Roubin-2 coronary stent of 4-mm diameter was subsequently performed, with excellent angiographic results. CONCLUSION: The patient made a very good neurological recovery but unfortunately died as a result of cardiogenic shock and sepsis. Detailed neuropathological follow-up results are presented; stent patency was revealed in the postmortem examination. The anatomic and pathophysiological considerations of basilar artery stent placement for the treatment of acute basilar artery occlusion related to atherosclerotic stenosis are discussed.

Acute Disease↗

Spinal dural arteriovenous fistula with an associated feeding artery aneurysm: case report.

OBJECTIVE AND IMPORTANCE: A case of a spinal dural arteriovenous fistula (DAVF) with two associated feeding artery aneurysms is reported. Intradural spinal arteriovenous malformations have been associated with aneurysms that present with subarachnoid hemorrhage and with venous varices that produce mass effect, but spinal DAVFs have not previously been described in association with feeding artery aneurysms. CLINICAL PRESENTATION: A 71-year-old man presented with progressive spastic paraparesis, constipation, and overflow incontinence. Magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated a spinal vascular lesion and venous ischemia in the lower spinal cord. Diagnostic spinal angiography revealed a DAVF originating from the left T11 radicular artery and having the unusual feature of two proximal feeding artery aneurysms. INTERVENTION: The patient deteriorated neurologically after undergoing angiography, prompting emergent surgery. The DAVF was resected through a T11 transpedicular approach. One aneurysm was dolichoectatic and therefore unclippable, requiring proximal occlusion of the parent artery after establishing tolerance of test occlusion using somatosensory evoked potentials; the second aneurysm was adjacent to the fistula and was resected with the DAVF. CONCLUSION: Feeding artery aneurysms in association with spinal DAVFs have not been previously reported. They present additional risk to patients and, with simple modifications of the standard operative approaches, can easily be treated as part of the surgery for the DAVF.

Aged↗

Endovascular recanalization with balloon angioplasty and stenting of an occluded occipital sinus for treatment of intracranial venous hypertension: technical case report.

OBJECTIVE AND IMPORTANCE: Dural sinus thrombosis can lead to intracranial venous hypertension and can be complicated by intracranial hemorrhage. We present a case report of a patient who underwent endovascular recanalization and stenting of a thrombosed occipital sinus. CLINICAL PRESENTATION: A 13-year-old patient with a history of chronic sinus thrombosis refractory to anticoagulant therapy presented with acute onset of aphasia and hemiparesis. Computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging revealed hydrocephalus and cerebral edema. Angiography delineated multiple dural arteriovenous fistulae and persistent occlusion of the posterior sagittal, occipital, and bilateral transverse dural sinuses with retrograde cortical venous drainage. INTERVENTION: After embolization of the dural arteriovenous fistulae, a transvenous approach was used to recanalize and perform balloon angioplasty of the right internal jugular vein and the occipital and left transverse sinuses, resulting in subsequent clinical improvement. The patient's condition deteriorated 3 days later with reocclusion of both balloon-dilated sinuses. Repeat angioplasty and then deployment of an endovascular stent in the occipital sinus were performed, and reestablishment of venous outflow was achieved, resulting in a decrease of intracranial venous pressure from 41 to 14 mm Hg and neurological improvement. At the 3-month follow-up examination, the stented occipital sinus remained patent and served as the only conduit for extracranial venous outflow; the patient remained neurologically intact at the 12-month follow-up examination. CONCLUSION: This is the first report of mechanical recanalization, balloon angioplasty, and stent deployment in the occipital sinus to provide sustained venous outflow for the treatment of venous hypertension with retrograde cortical venous drainage in a patient with dural pansinus thrombosis refractory to anticoagulant therapy.

Adolescent↗

Treatment of an intracranial aneurysm using a new three-dimensional-shape Guglielmi detachable coil: technical case report.

OBJECTIVE AND IMPORTANCE: Coil embolization of wide-necked aneurysms is currently difficult, when using a conventional endovascular approach without resorting to complex adjunctive techniques. CLINICAL PRESENTATION: A 41-year-old woman with a history of systemic lupus erythematosus and hypertension refractory to treatment presented with an unruptured right ophthalmic segment aneurysm of the internal carotid artery having an unfavorable neck-to-fundus ratio. INTERVENTION: A new type of Guglielmi detachable coil (Target Therapeutics, Fremont, CA), consisting of a series of omega loops, spontaneously forms a three-dimensional cage after deployment and was used to successfully treat the aneurysm, which was angiographically stable at the 3-month follow-up. CONCLUSION: The new Guglielmi detachable coil may be useful in the embolization of aneurysms having an unfavorable geometry, which would otherwise not be amenable to endovascular treatment without adjunctive techniques.

Adult↗

Ethmoidal dural arteriovenous fistulae: an assessment of surgical and endovascular management.

OBJECTIVE: Endovascular treatment of ethmoidal dural arteriovenous fistulae (DAVFs) has become technically feasible, but its relative risks and benefits have not justified its use. We present a series of patients with ethmoidal DAVFs treated almost exclusively with surgery at an institution where expert endovascular therapy was available. Surgical risks, treatment efficacy, and patient outcomes were determined for comparison with published endovascular data. METHODS: Sixteen patients with ethmoidal DAVFs were treated during a 17-year period from 1982 to 1999. In three patients, feeding arteries from the internal maxillary artery were embolized; no ophthalmic artery embolizations were performed. A low bifrontal surgical approach was used in most patients to expose, coagulate, and divide the fistulous site. RESULTS: Ethmoidal DAVFs were occluded grossly and angiographically in all 16 patients. There was no treatment-associated neurological morbidity, and clinical outcomes were good in all but one patient who was comatose initially. CONCLUSION: Review of our surgical experience with ethmoidal DAVFs as well as published endovascular results for these lesions suggests that endovascular management of ethmoidal DAVFs has a small but clinically significant risk to vision, is rarely effective in curing the fistula, and does not eliminate the need for surgery. In contrast, surgical management has no associated risk to vision, is highly effective at obliterating the fistula, and can contribute to good clinical outcomes in most patients. For these reasons, surgical management of ethmoidal DAVFs remains the treatment of choice.

Aged↗

Tandem intracranial stent deployment for treatment of an iatrogenic, flow-limiting, basilar artery dissection: technical case report.

OBJECTIVE AND IMPORTANCE: Intimal dissection constitutes one of the complications associated with angioplasty of intracranial vessels. We present a case of iatrogenic dissection of the entire basilar artery, which was induced by angioplasty and stenting of symptomatic, focal, intracranial vertebral artery stenosis, and its successful treatment with tandem deployment of a downstream stent. CLINICAL PRESENTATION: A 61-year-old, hypertensive, renal transplant recipient presented with orthostatic vertebrobasilar insufficiency that was refractory to medical management, including anticoagulation therapy. Angiography revealed an occluded right vertebral artery and focal, high-grade, left intracranial vertebral artery stenosis. Magnetic resonance imaging showed multiple posterior fossa infarctions. The left intracranial vertebral artery stenosis was successfully treated with primary stent deployment and balloon angioplasty, with symptom resolution. On postprocedure Day 2, the patient noted worsening right hemiparesis. INTERVENTION: Subsequent angiography revealed a flow-limiting, windsock-type, basilar artery dissection beginning at the distal end of the left vertebral artery stent and extending to the origin of the left posterior cerebral artery. A tandem stent was navigated intracranially and deployed past the first one, successfully sealing the dissection inflow zone and reconstituting normal flow to the top of the basilar artery. A clinical follow-up examination at 3 months revealed no further orthostatic symptoms and only mild residual right-sided weakness. CONCLUSION: This is the first description of iatrogenic stent-induced dissection of the entire basilar artery that was successfully treated by inflow zone control via tandem intracranial stent deployment.

Aortic Dissection↗

Treatment of posterior circulation ischemia with extracranial percutaneous balloon angioplasty and stent placement.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Vertebrobasilar territory ischemia (VBI) leads to disabling neurological symptoms and poses a risk for stroke by an embolic or flow-related mechanism. We present our clinical experience in the endovascular treatment of patients with symptomatic VBI from severe atherosclerosis or dissection of the vertebral and subclavian arteries that was unresponsive to medical therapy. METHODS: Twenty-one patients (9 female, 12 male) with a mean age of 65.7 years (range 47 to 81 years) underwent treatment with percutaneous endovascular balloon angioplasty and stent placement. Sixteen patients (76.2%) had evidence of contralateral involvement, and 9 (42.8%) demonstrated severe anterior-circulation atherosclerosis. Nine patients had a previous infarct in the occipital lobe, cerebellum, or pons before treatment. Follow-up was available for all patients. RESULTS: Balloon angioplasty with intravascular stent placement was performed in 13 vertebral artery lesions (10 at the origin, 3 in the cervical segment) and in 8 subclavian lesions. The prestenting stenosis was 75% (50% to 100%) and was reduced to 4.5% (0% to 20%) after stenting. Six of the patients with proximal subclavian stenosis demonstrated angiographic evidence of subclavian steal, which resolved in all cases after treatment. All patients showed improvement in symptoms after the procedure except for 1 who developed a hemispheric stroke after thrombotic occlusion of an untreated cavernous carotid artery stenosis (rate of major stroke and mortality=4.8%). One patient (4.8%) had a periprocedural transient ischemic attack (TIA), and none had minor stroke. At long-term follow-up (mean=20.7+/-3.6 months) of the surviving 20 patients, 12 (57.1%) remained symptom-free, 4 (19%) had at most 1 TIA over a 3-month period, 2 (9.5%) had at most 1 TIA per month, and 2 (9.5%) had persistent symptoms. There were no clinically evident infarcts during the follow-up period. CONCLUSIONS: Endovascular treatment using balloon angioplasty with intravascular stent placement for symptomatic stenotic lesions resulting in VBI that is unresponsive to medical therapy appears to be of benefit in this high-risk subset of patients with poor collateral flow.

Aged↗

Acquired pial arteriovenous fistula following cerebral vein thrombosis.

BACKGROUND: We report a unique case of an acquired pial arteriovenous fistula occurring after an asymptomatic thrombosis of a superficial cerebral vein. CASE DESCRIPTION: A cerebral angiogram performed in a 51-year-old man with subarachnoid hemorrhage revealed a 10-mm ruptured anterior communicating artery aneurysm and a thrombosed left superficial middle cerebral vein. Coil embolization of the anterior communicating aneurysm was performed. Follow-up angiography 18 months later revealed a new, asymptomatic, pial arteriovenous fistula between the previously thrombosed left superficial middle cerebral vein and a small sylvian branch of the left middle cerebral artery. CONCLUSIONS: This case provides evidence that pial arteriovenous fistulas may develop as acquired lesions and furthermore may rarely follow cerebral vein thrombosis. Several cases of dural arteriovenous fistulas, as well as a single case of a mixed pial-dural arteriovenous fistula, occurring after dural sinus thrombosis have been reported previously. However, to our knowledge, this is the first report of an acquired pial arteriovenous fistula following a cerebral vein thrombosis.

Aneurysm, Ruptured↗

Clinical use of stents for carotid artery disease.

Over the last 5 years, the clinical use of intravascular stents for treatment of carotid artery pathology has become more prevalent and the spectrum of potential indications has widened. Endovascular stenting is providing an alternative to surgical endarterectomy for treatment of cervical carotid artery atherosclerotic disease. This has prompted a North American, randomized, controlled clinical trial directly comparing these two therapies. In this article we review the major surgical endarterectomy trials that currently provide the scientific rationale for revascularization of carotid artery occlusive disease, critically evaluate the evidence supporting the application of endovascular stenting procedures for the treatment of occlusive and nonocclusive disease of the extracranial and intracranial carotid artery, consider the current clinical indications for use of stents in the carotid artery, and discuss current equipment, technique, and potential procedure-related complications.

Angioplasty, Balloon↗

Intraventricular contrast medium leakage during ethanol embolization of an arteriovenous malformation.

We report the unusual phenomenon of abrupt intraventricular contrast medium leakage from the choroid plexus occurring during ethanol embolization of a periventricular arteriovenous malformation. There was no evidence of any associated intraventricular hemorrhage to suggest that leakage arose from a vessel perforation, as was first suspected. Intraventricular contrast medium leakage has been reported previously in the setting of ependymitis, and it is likely that similar pathogenetic mechanisms apply in this case. To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of intraventricular contrast medium leakage occurring during an embolization procedure.

Brain↗

The effect of oestrogen on the development of arteriovenous fistulae induced by venous hypertension in rats.

PURPOSE: Dural arteriovenous fistulae (AVF) represent abnormal communication between the meningeal arteries and the dural sinuses. Clinically, this condition appears more frequently in post-menopausal and pregnant women than in the general population. Oestrogen is believed to play an important role in the development of dural AVF; however, its exact role has not been clearly defined. We have previously reported that by surgically creating a carotid-jugular shunt in male rats, which then induces venous hypertension, spontaneous arteriovenous fistulae can result. To examine the specific role that oestrogen may have in the development of AVF induced by venous hypertension, we performed the following experimental procedure. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Ninety-four Sprague-Dawley female rats (250-300 grams in weight) were randomly assigned to four different groups. Group 1 (n = 20): control (bilateral ovariectomy only). Group 2 (n = 19): bilateral ovariectomy and implantation of the oestrogen pellet (17-beta oestradiol 0.75 mg/pellet, 60 days release). Group 3 (n = 17): bilateral ovariectomy and venous hypertension (left carotid-jugular shunt with proximal jugular vein occlusion). Group 4 (n = 38): bilateral ovariectomy and oestrogen pellet implantation and venous hypertension. All of the groups were examined by angiography 60 days after treatment. In Groups 1 and 2, bilateral common carotid angiography was performed via a transfemoral route. In Groups 3 and 4, angiography was done after surgical ligation of the carotid-jugular shunt to examine for any newly developed AVF. RESULTS: No newly developed AVF were found in either Groups 1, 2, or 3. In Group 4, 2 rats (5.3%) developed newly formed AVF which occurred in the nose and neck. Our previous study demonstrated that AVF appeared in 3 of 22 (13.6%) venous hypertensive male rats. Therefore, no statistical difference in the appearance rate of newly formed AVF was found among groups 1, 2, 3 or 4 and between our previously reported group of male venous hypertensive rats. CONCLUSION: In this experimental study, ovariectomy with or without oestrogen did not affect the development of spontaneous AVF induced by venous hypertension.

Animals↗