A 68-year-old woman became the first patient in Houston to have her brain aneurysm treated with a recently FDA-approved liquid material instead of traditional open skull surgery or platinum coils.
Dr. Orlando Diaz, an interventional neuroradiologist with the Methodist Neurological Institute, performed the two-and-a-half hour procedure using a minimally-invasive technique. Diaz threaded a catheter through the patient's groin area, through blood vessels and up to the brain. He then administered the Onyx HD 500 liquid to the aneurysm, instead of using traditional coiling.
"Once the liquid makes contact with blood inside the bulging aneurysm, it becomes a firm pudding-like substance and works like concrete to stabilize the aneurysm and prevent more blood from entering and causing it to rupture," said Diaz. "This liquid treatment was first investigated here at Methodist before FDA approval. It's most effective with irregularly-shaped intracranial aneurysms where open surgery or coiling alone wouldn't be able to do the trick."
In 20 percent of patients whose brain aneurysms are treated with coils, the surgery must be redone because the coils shift and blood re-enters the bulge.
Approximately 30,000 Americans experience a brain aneurysm that bursts, usually resulting in sudden death. As many as one in 15 people in the United States will develop a brain aneurysm.
Brain aneurysms are caused by a weak spot in a blood vessel that balloons as it fills with blood. They can occur in anyone at any age, but are more common in women than men, in adults rather than children. Many people with brain aneurysms can go through life undiagnosed but a rupture can cause sudden, severe headache; numbness or weakness of the face, arm or leg; trouble speaking; vision problems; and sudden nausea and vomiting.
The Methodist Hospital in the Texas Medical Center treats more patients with brain aneurysms than any other hospital in the region.
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