Introduction and Aim: The advantages of three-dimensional digital subtraction angiography (3D-DSA) over
two-dimensional DSA (2D-DSA) for evaluation of the angioarchitecture of intracranial
aneurysms (IA) have been previously reported. The introduction of modern intraoperative
DSA (iDSA) technology within the environment of a hybrid operation room (hOR) allows
immediate intraoperative evaluation of microsurgical IA occlusion. The aim of this
study is to compare 2D-iDSA with 3D-iDSA findings after microsurgical IA occlusion.
Methods: A consecutive series of 118 patients who underwent microsurgical IA occlusion were
retrospectively analyzed. In patients with documented IA remnants 2D- and 3D-iDSA
images were re-evaluated and compared.
Results: A total of 21 (17.8%) and 14 (11.9%) cases presenting with IA remnant aneurysms were
documented on 3D-iDSA and 2D-iDSA, respectively. The sensitivity of 2D-iDSA for detection
of IA remnant compared with 3D-iDSA findings was 66.7% (14/21). The range of the 2D-iDSA
sensitivity varied between 0 and 100% with a trend toward higher sensitivity in larger
and lower sensitivity in smaller IA remnants.
Conclusions: This study demonstrated superiority of 3D-iDSA for detection of IA remnants after
microsurgical occlusion compared with 2D-iDSA, especially for small IA remnants. According
to our observations, 3D-iDSA might become the gold standard imaging technique for
intraoperative evaluation of IA remnants. The performance of 3D-iDSA was observed
to be feasible in the environment of the hOR. These observations have to be validated
in larger series.