Balloon-assisted coiling of intracranial aneurysms: evaluation of local thrombus formation and symptomatic thromboembolic complications

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Remodeling balloons are used to assist in endovascular coiling of aneurysms. We evaluated our experience with balloon-assisted coiling (BAC) in an attempt to deter-mine whether this technique increased the rate of thrombus formation or symptomatic thromboem-bolic complications. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In 3 years, we treated 221 patients with intracranial aneurysms. Statistical analysis was performed to assess whether BAC increased the rate of thrombus formation or symp-tomatic thromboembolic complications. Patient demographics, aneurysm size, location, neck width, antiplatelet therapy, and rupture status were evaluated. RESULTS: We detected no statistically significant difference in rates of thrombus formation (14% versus 9%with and without BAC, respectively, P 0.35) or symptomatic thromboembolic events (7% versus 5 % with and without BAC, respectively, P 0.76), though our power to detect small differences was limited. There was also no correlation with age, sex, rupture status, aneurysm size, or location. There was a significant increase in the rates of thrombus formation (6 % versus 16%, P 0.02) and symptomatic thromboembolic complications (3 % versus 10%, P 0.04) in aneurysms that were classified as narrow- or wide-necked, respectively. The use of clopidogrel was associated wit