Successful treatment of a ruptured aneurysm at the vertebral artery-posterior inferior cerebellar artery junction and simultaneous treatment of the stenotic vertebral artery with a single flow-diverting stent: a case report.

INTRODUCTION

This is the first report on the simultaneous successful treatment of a large ruptured saccular aneurysm and stenotic parent artery with a single flow-diverting stent.

CASE PRESENTATION: We report the case of a 68-year-old Caucasian man with occlusion of the right vertebral artery and a ruptured aneurysm at the junction of the left posterior inferior cerebellar artery-left vertebral artery that was successfully treated by the deployment of a single flow-diverting stent in the stenotic left vertebral artery. Stent deployment was complicated by thrombotic occlusion of the basilar artery, which was successfully reopened. The patient recovered completely, and follow-up angiography at 4 months and 1 year showed patent vertebral artery with gradual shrinkage of the aneurysm.

CONCLUSIONS

This report contributes to the literature on treatment of large ruptured aneurysms localized in stenotic arteries and in areas of the endocranium where a mass of embolic material in the aneurysm (coils) might compromise the circulation in the parent blood vessel or compress vital brain structures.