Real-time laser speckle contrast imaging for intraoperative neurovascular blood flow assessment: animal experimental study

The use of various blood flow control methods in neurovascular interventions is crucial for reducing postoperative complications. Neurosurgeons worldwide use different methods, such as contact Dopplerography, intraoperative indocyanine videoangiography (ICG) video angiography, fluorescein angiography, flowmetry, intraoperative angiography, and direct angiography. However, there is no noninvasive method that can assess the presence of blood flow in the vessels of the brain without the introduction of fluorescent substances throughout the intervention. The real-time laser-speckle contrast imaging (LSCI) method was studied for its effectiveness in controlling blood flow in standard cerebrovascular surgery cases in rat common carotid arteries, such as proximal occlusion, trapping, reperfusion, anastomosis, and intraoperative vessel thrombosis. The real-time LSCI method is a promising method for use in neurosurgical practice. This approach allows timely diagnosis of intraoperative disturbance of blood flow in vessels in cases of clip occlusion or thrombosis. Additionally, LSCI allows us to reliably confirm the functioning of the anastomosis and reperfusion after removal of the clips and thrombolysis in real time. An unresolved limitation of the method is noise from movements, but this does not reduce the value of the method. Additional research is required to improve the quality of the data obtained

The results of surgery for giant aneurysms of the middle cerebral arteries: a retrospective study

Background: Surgical treatment of middle cerebral artery (MCA) giant aneurysms is a challenging task. The information on its current principles is rather limited, with the publications based on isolated case reports and small series. Aim: To identify the types of procedures and evaluate the results of surgery in patients with giant MCA aneurysms. Materials and methods: We retrospectively analyzed the data on 55 patients who had undergone surgery for MCA giant aneurysms in the Burdenko Neurosurgery Center from 2010 to 2021. Thereafter 52 patients were followed up for 6 to 120 months (for 53.1 33.7 months on average). Results: The giant MCA aneurysms were located at the M1 segment bifurcation in 33 (60%) patients, within the M1 segment, in 11 (20%), M2 in 7 (12.7%), and M3 and M4 in 4 (7.3%) patients. There were 32 (58.2%) saccular and 23 (41.8%) fusiform aneurysms. Surgical interventions for MCA giant aneurysms included their neck clipping (50.9%, n = 28), clipping with formation of the arterial lumen (3.6%, n = 2), bypass procedures (34.5%, n = 19), wrapping (3.6%, n = 2), and endovascular procedures (7.3%, n = 4). Perioperative worsening of the neurologic status (The Modified Rankin Scale, mRS) was observed in 50.9% (n = 28) of the patients, and the death rate was 1.8% (n = 1). The complete closure of giant aneurysms was achieved in 78.2% (n = 43) of the cases. The long-term outcome was favorable in 76.9% of the patients (40 from 52 available for the follow up). Conclusion: Microsurgical clipping and bypass types of surgery were the most common surgical procedures for the treatment of MCA giant aneurysms. These procedures are technically complex and are associated with a relatively high number of complications. The main directions of future studies could be in the search for new and more precise diagnostic assessment of the collateral circulation in the cortical MCA branches, improvement of the algorithm for the bypass selection, as well as an investigation of the long-term results of endovascular and combined treatments. A thorough long-term postoperative patient follow-up and the possibility of high quality control angiography are of major importance