New anticoagulant and antiplatelet medications have been approved and are prescribed with increased frequency. Intracranial hemorrhage is associated with the use of these medications. Therefore, neurosurgeons need to be aware of these new medications, how they are different from their predecessors, and the strategies for the urgent reversal of their effects. Utilization of intraluminal stents by endovascular neurosurgeons has resulted in the need to have a thorough understanding of antiplatelet agents. Increased use of dabigatran, rivaroxaban, and apixaban as oral anticoagulants for the treatment of atrial fibrillation and acute deep venous thrombosis has increased despite the lack of known antidotes to these medications.
SUMMARYAcute iatrogenic occlusion of cerebral vessels is a risk during the performance of neuroendovascular procedures. Most commonly this is a result of thrombus formation within the vessel, thromboembolism or an acute vasospastic response. There are several options for flow restoration including pharmacological, mechanical and microsurgical. Mechanical flow restoration, usually by thrombectomy, is typically performed in large cerebral vessels. Current mechanical thrombectomy devices have limited utility in smaller vessels that are more difficult to access, such as the anterior cerebral artery (ACA). We present two cases where successful flow restoration of an intraoperative acutely occluded or thrombotic ACA was rapidly achieved by balloon dilation using a new coaxial dual-lumen balloon catheter. The time elapsed from the decision to use the balloon catheter until revascularization for each patient was 5 min and 46 s (case 1) and 10 min and 25 s (case 2).
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