Cerebrovascular neurosurgery 2014

Continued advances in our understanding of the management of cerebrovascular disease were made in 2014. A randomized trial for management of unruptured brain arteriovenous malformation (ARUBA) (Mohr et al. Lancet 2014;383:614–21.) and the Scottish intracranial vascular malformation study (Al-Shahi Salman et al. JAMA 2014;311:1661–9) were published and contrasted with reports based on extensive surgical experience. We highlight the results from the simvastatin in aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage study (STASH) (Kirkpatrick et al. Lancet Neurol 2014;13:666–75) which unfortunately did not demonstrate a benefit of simvastatin on outcome in patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage. The 10 year follow-up of the international subarachnoid aneurysm trial (ISAT) (Molyneux et al. Lancet 2014 [E-pub]) and the 3 year follow-up results from the stenting and aggressive medical management for preventing recurrent stroke in intracranial stenosis (SAMMPRIS) (Derdeyn et al. Lancet 2014;383:333–41) were also reported. Results from the Japan adult Moyamoya trial (JAM) (Miyamoto et al. Stroke 2014;45:1415–21) are also briefly reviewed. Furthermore, benefits of familial screening for relatives of intracranial aneurysm and arteriovenous malformation patients, a promising angioscopic experience for endovascular procedures, as well as a modified bypass technique for management of complex aneurysms are outlined. The largest literature series to date for coiling large and giant aneurysms together with the midterm results of the Solitaire stent (ev3, Irvine, CA, USA) aneurysm remodeling study in coiling wide-necked aneurysms (SOLARE) are also presented (Gory et al. Neurosurgery 2014;75:215–9).