Introduction: The management of intracranial aneurysms in sub-Saharan Africa is essentially surgical. In this retrospective study, the authors report their experience in surgical management of intracranial aneurysm in C ôte d’Ivoire. Methods: We carried out a retrospective study on patients operated for a ruptured or unruptured intracranial aneurysm between January 1st, 2012 and December 31st, 2018. Data on epidemiological characteristics of patients and aneurysms, treatments and patient outcomes were analyzed. Results: One hundred twenty eight aneurysms were operated. Sixty-six percent of the patients were female. According to the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies (WFNS) scale, 58, 5% of patients were in grade I. Fisher scale showed 29% of Fisher 2 and 49% of Fisher 4. The aneurysms were mainly located on the internal carotid artery in 38% and anterior complex in 36%. The average size of aneurysms was 6.5 mm. In 81.4% the size of the aneurysms was less than 10 mm. Most aneurysms (90%) were treated at late stage. According to the modified Rankin Scale, 92 patients (83%) had good outcome, 7 patients (6%) had poor outcome, and the mortality rate was 11%. Conclusions: This study shows encouraging results if we refer to the overall postoperative results. However, there is a sub-diagnosis and low treatment rate of ruptured intracranial aneurysms. The improvement of intracranial aneurysms management requires improving the standard of health in the country.
Microsurgery which has been for a long time the only treatment of intracranial aneurysms has been supplanted by endovascular treatment since the results of the International Subarachnoid Aneurysm Trial (ISAT) [
In most sub-Saharan African countries, microsurgery remains the main treatment of intracranial aneurysms because of the unavailability of endovascular treatment. In most time, this microsurgery involves clipping or wrapping. Rarely other techniques including trapping or proximal artery occlusion by surgical ligation are performed. The timing of microsurgery after aneurismal subarachnoid haemorrhage is controversial.
In Côte d’Ivoire, a developing country in West Africa, surgery remained the only treatment of intracranial aneurysms until 2018, when endovascular treatment became part of the therapeutic arsenal in treatment of intracranial aneurysms in the country.
In this paper, authors reported the epidemiological characteristics of their patients, the characteristics of aneurysms and the result of their management.
We carried out a retrospective study on patients operated for one or more ruptured or unruptured intracranial aneurysm whom underwent microsurgical treatment of their aneurysm between January 1, 2012 and December 31, 2018. Of the 160 patients treated for intracranial aneurysm, 111 were retained. Other files were incomplete. Each patient had at least a CT head scan for the diagnosis of intracranial haemorrhage and CT angiography for the diagnosis of intracranial aneurysm. For each patient, data on age, sex, World Federation of Neurological Surgeon (WFNS) score at admission, Fisher grade, seat and size of the aneurysms, associated evolutionary complications (hydrocephalus, vasospasm, rebleeding), type of surgical treatment used, and quality of patient survival (assessed by Modified Rankin Scale at 1 year) were analyzed. The data collection and the making of graphs were made from excel. Statistical analyzes were performed on SPSS version 22.
According to the protocol, 111 patients with 128 operated aneurysms were selected.
Age and sex
Men accounted for 34% of patients versus 66% for women. The age of the patients ranged between 13 and 78 years old with a mean age and a median age of 46 years (
Aneurysms characteristics
A total of 128 aneurysms were diagnosed including 107 ruptured aneurysms and 21 unruptured aneurysms. These aneurysms were multiple in 15 patients (13.5%). Aneurysms were present in the anterior cerebral circulation in 98.5% and in the posterior cerebral circulation in 1.5% (
Right | Midline | Left | Total | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Anterior cerebral artery Anterior communicating artery Proximal to anterior communicating Pericallosal Subtotal | 3 4 7 | 33 33 | 3 3 6 | 33 6 7 46 |
Internal carotid artery Proximal or ophthalmic region Posterior communicating region Bifurcation Cavernous internal carotid Subtotal | 1 25 2 1 29 | 3 17 20 | 4 42 2 1 49 | |
Middle cerebral artery Bifurcation Distal to main bifurcation Subtotal | 16 3 19 | 10 2 12 | 26 5 31 | |
Posterior circulation Basilar bifurcation Posterior cerebral artery Subtotal | 1 1 | 1 1 | 1 1 2 | |
Total | 56 | 34 | 38 | 128 |
Of the 107 ruptured aneurysms, 33 were located in the anterior communicating artery, 32 were located in the internal carotid artery and 27 in the middle cerebral artery. Aneurysms were sacciform in 123 cases (96%) versus 5 fusiform aneurysms (4%).
The average size of the aneurysms was 6.5 mm with extremes of 2 and 27 mm. The size of the aneurysms was less than 10 mm in 81.4% of cases and 2 cases of giant aneurysm (size greater than 25 mm) were operated.
Preoperative condition
The WFNS grade is shown in the histogram below with a clear predominance of grade 1 (58.5%) (
Cerebral CT scan was able to classify the patients according to Fisher score with a clear predominance of grade 4 (
The WFNS score at the time of surgery was 0 in 4 patients, 1 in 94 patients, 2 in 4, 3 in 8 and 4 in 1 patient.
Timing of surgery and overall surgical result
The average time between rupture and surgical exclusion was 31 days with a range from 1 to 180 days. One hundred and fifteen (90%) aneurysms were treated 8 days or more after rupture. Only ten aneurysms (8%) were operated within 72 hours and 3 (2%) between 4 and 7 days after aneurysmal rupture. While waiting for surgical treatment 14 (12.6%) patients survived rebleeding, 17 (15.3%) cases of acute and chronic hydrocephalus were observed, 2 cases of delayed ischemia.
Surgical treatment consisted of clipping in 118 (92%) aneurysms versus 10 (8%) wrapped aneurysms.
During surgery 20 cases of intraoperative aneurysm rupture occurred. Immediate postoperative complications occurred in some patients. Six (5.4%) operative
revisions were performed for early postoperative complications, including 4 extradural hematomas and 2 cases of malignant cerebral oedema.
CT angiography after microsurgery was performed in 61 patients with clipped aneurysms and revealed complete exclusion in all cases.
A good mRs (modified Rankin Scale) score was observed in 92 (83%) patients, a poor score in 7 (6%). The mortality rate was 11%, i.e. 12 patients (
No case of rebleeding occurred after at least 1 year follow-up.
Sequel of epilepsy was observed in 5 (4.5%) patients.
Although there are very few publications about intracranial aneurysms in Africa, particularly in sub-Saharan countries, intracranial aneurysms are not uncommon [
Age and sex
Our study population consisted mainly of young adults with an average age of 46 years. Thioub et al. found in their study, in Senegal, an average age similar to ours (45.9 years) [
· essentially young population,
· low life expectancy (ranging from 46.6 years in 2000 to 53.5 years in 2016) [
A predominance of females is generally reported in most studies [
Britz Gavin, W. et al. reported a clear predominance of female (66.3%) in their study [
WFNS at admission | Good outcomes (mRS 0 - 2) | Poor outcomes (mRS 3 - 5) | Mortality; n |
---|---|---|---|
0 | 3 | 1 | 0 |
I | 54 | 5 | 6 |
II | 17 | 0 | 3 |
III | 11 | 0 | 2 |
IV | 5 | 1 | 1 |
V | 2 | 0 | 0 |
TOTAL | 92 | 7 | 12 |
WFNS, World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies.
Several explanations of the female predominance of aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage have been discussed in the literature. Because the incidence is highest in women after menopause, it has been suggested that female sex hormones may play a key role in the formation and growth of intracranial aneurysms [
Aneurysm Characteristics
Aneurysm locations
The international subarachnoid aneurysm trial (ISAT) found that 95% of aneurysms were located in the anterior cerebral circulation [
Form of aneurysms
We observed a high prevalence of sacciform aneurysms 96% against only 4% for fusiform aneurysms. Thioub et al. reported 92.3% of sacciform aneurysms and 7.7% fusiform aneurysm in their series [
Size of aneurysms
Many studies have attempted to determine a critical size at which an aneurysm is likely to rupture and thus justify its treatment.
In our series, the average size of aneurysms was 6.5 mm. The sizes of the aneurysms were less than 10 mm in 81.4%. Thioub et al. observed that 73% of operated aneurysms were smaller than 10 mm [
Preoperative condition
The major clinical manifestation of intracranial aneurysms is subarachnoid haemorrhage, which is the first manifestation in more than 90% of cases [
Timing of surgery and overall surgical result
Despite the progress made in the surgery of intracranial aneurysms, there is no consensus about the optimal time for performing this surgery in order to obtain the best results in ruptured aneurysm. The work of Nieuwakamp, D.J. et al. [
The majority of our patients were operated at the late stage for several reasons:
· delayed diagnosis especially for late consultation,
· financial difficulty because there is no national social security and care is in most cases the responsibility of the patient,
· the current protocol in our service recommends to operate the patient either within 3 days following the rupture or beyond the 15th day.
We recommend early surgery to prevent early rebleeding especially since it does not seem harmful to the patient.
Aneurysm surgery
Most authors, like Lafuente [
This study shows encouraging results if we refer to the overall postoperative results. However, there is a sub-diagnosis and a low treatment rate of ruptured intracranial aneurysms because of the weakness of the country’s health system.
The improvement of intracranial aneurysms management requires the establishment of national social coverage and improvement of the technical platform of the health structures in the country.
The authors declare that the article content was composed in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Tokpa, A., Haïdara, A., Derou, L., Dongo, S., Kakou, M. and Varlet, G. (2020) Microsurgical Management of Intracranial Aneurysms in Côte d’Ivoire: A Series of 128 Cases. Open Journal of Modern Neurosurgery, 10, 105-113. https://doi.org/10.4236/ojmn.2020.101011