Surgical Treatment of Middle Cerebral Artery Aneurysms: Aneurysm Location and Size Ratio as Risk Factors for Neurologic Worsening and Ischemic Complications.

BACKGROUND: Regardless of acceptable surgical results of middle cerebral artery aneurysms (MCAs), MCA territory infarction (MCATI) remains a major obstacle to achieving a good outcome. We investigated the MCATI in patients with surgically treated MCA aneurysms.

METHODS: The data of 286 consecutive patients with 322 MCA aneurysms were evaluated retrospectively. The aneurysm location was classified as early frontal cortical branch (EFCB), early temporal cortical branch (ETCB), bifurcation or trifurcation (M1-2), and distal aneurysms on the insular, opercular, or cortical segments of the MCA (distal MCA). Neurologic worsening was defined as an increase in 1 or more modified Rankin Scale (mRS) scores.

RESULTS: Multivariate analysis identified EFCB location as the sole risk factor for MCATI (odds ratio [OR], 3.8; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.2-12; P = 0.021) and MCATI (OR, 18; 95% CI, 2.8-117; P = 0.002) and a larger size ratio (OR, 1.4; 95% CI, 1.1-1.8; P = 0.019) were related to 12-month neurologic worsening (n = 6; 1.9%). During follow-up (median, 885 days; interquartile range, 485-1229 days), posttreatment rupture and aneurysm recurrence were not observed.

CONCLUSIONS: In the present study, compared with M1-2 aneurysms, MCATIs were observed more frequently in EFCB aneurysms, and the presence of MCATI and a larger size ratio were related to 12-month neurologic worsening in patients with surgically treated MCA aneurysms.