Clinical and Radiological Features of Posterior Communicating Artery Aneurysms

SUMMARY: Treatment of unruptured intracranial aneurysms based on critical size and predictive risk factors is generally accepted, but several factors contribute to the clinical outcome in a patient with subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) secondary to a ruptured aneurysm. We decided to evaluate other parameters that might contribute to the clinical outcome of patients with a ruptured posterior communicating artery aneurysm. A retrospective review of the medical records of patients diagnosed and/or treated of cerebral aneurysms at our institution was carried out. We selected patients with Pcom aneurysms that presented with SAH and reviewed conventional and tridimensional angiographic images to determine its anatomical orientation and correlated the data with amount of SAH and clinical presentation and outcome. A total of 112 Pcom aneurysms presented with SAH and were included in this study. 92 patients were women and 20 were men, with a mean age of 57 years (range 25-81). According to anatomical orientation, 43 were inferolateral, 30 lateral, 13 superolateral, three inferomedial, two in medial location, two superomedial, 11 inferoposterior, five posterior and three superoposterior. Aneurysms in superolateral location are to be watched carefully, it is likely that this location joins several conditions for these aneurysms to grow faster or have a higher hemodynamic stress which makes them more at risk of rupture and contribute to a worse clinical outcome.