Vertebrobasilar insufficiency: stable xenon computed tomography-cerebral blood flow study in posterior circulation revascularization.

Preoperative and postoperative local cerebral blood flow were measured by the stable xenon computed tomography-cerebral blood flow technique in 15 patients with vertebrobasilar insufficiency. The surgery included end-arterectomy or angioplasty of the vertebral artery (five cases), superficial temporal artery-superior cerebellar artery anastomosis (eight cases), and superficial temporal artery-posterior cerebral artery anastomosis (two cases). Fourteen (93.3%) of the 15 patients improved in the post-operative period. Low local cerebral blood flow in the ischemic area without infarction manifested a constant and significant increase postoperatively. In summary, the stable xenon computed tomography-cerebral blood flow technique is thought to be a simple and useful method for assessing local cerebral blood flow in posterior circulation perioperatively.