Prognosis of surgically treated intracranial arterial aneurysm patients

O. M. Ballenger, M. Salcman, T. B. Ducker and P. Perot

From 1969 to 1973, we undertook a direct surgical therapeutic approach with 62 patients who had intracranial aneurysms. The surgical mortality for patients in the first three clinical grades was 5%. Sixty-eight percent of the entire group of patients had improved conditions at follow-up. When these results are compared to the expected outcome of the natural course of the disease under conservative management, the superiority of the direct approach is seen. With the aid of modern instrumentation, anesthesia, steroid therapy, and magnification, neurosurgical centers handling a reasonable volume of these cases should achieve comparable results.