Endovascular treatment of a vertebral artery aneurysm via puncture of the surgically exposed vertebral artery.

We describe a case of subarachnoid hemorrhage due to a ruptured right vertebral artery (VA) aneurysm where endovascular therapy via a trans-femoral route was not feasible. Therefore we surgically exposed the VA and directly punctured it at the C4 level, followed by successful coil embolization. Direct access to the vertebral artery using an anterior surgical approach is an alternative in cases where the proximal side of the artery is occluded.