Journal of neurosurgery
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Journal of neurosurgery · Feb 2000
Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study Clinical TrialEfficacy of transluminal angioplasty for the management of symptomatic cerebral vasospasm following aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage.
Transluminal angioplasty has become a widely used adjunct therapy to medical management of symptomatic cerebral vasospasm following subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). Despite anecdotal reports of universal, angiographically confirmed reversal of vasospasm and high rates of clinical improvement, no rigorous examination of the efficacy of this procedure has been conducted. In this study the authors assess the efficacy of the aforementioned procedure. ⋯ Transluminal cerebral angioplasty is very effective in reversing angiographically confirmed vasospasm, and anecdotal reports of its clinical utility are numerous. However, in this report the authors conclude that its superiority to medical management for symptomatic cerebral vasospasm is questionable.