BACKGROUND: Posterior inferior cerebellar artery (PICA) aneurysms are an uncommon, heterogeneous group of aneurysms with poorer neurological outcomes compared to other intracranial aneurysms. At first, as part A, we conducted a systematic review of the literature to evaluate the safety and efficacy of treatment strategies for PICA-aneurysms. Subsequently, as part B, we performed a multicenter retrospective study to analyze the outcome in a large series of patients treated with contemporary microsurgical and endovascular techniques. METHODS: For the meta-analysis, a systematic search of Medline, EMBASE, Scopus and Web of Science was done for studies published through November 2015. We included studies that described treatment of PICA-aneurysms with ≥10 patients. Random-effects meta-analysis was used to pool the following outcomes: complete occlusion, technical success, periprocedural morbidity/mortality, stroke rates, aneurysm recurrence/rebleed, CN-palsies rates, and long-term neurological morbidity/mortality. As the second part, aiming to report the current trends and results in treatment strategies for PICA-aneurysms, records of 94 patients treated for PICA-aneurysms between 2000 and 2015 at 3 large referral neurovascular centers were retrospectively reviewed. RESULTS: In the meta-analysis, we...

BACKGROUND: Posterior inferior cerebellar artery (PICA) aneurysms are an uncommon, heterogeneous group of aneurysms with poorer neurological outcomes compared to other intracranial aneurysms. At first, as part A, we conducted a systematic review of the literature to evaluate the safety and efficacy of treatment strategies for PICA-aneurysms. Subsequently, as part B, we performed a multicenter retrospective study to analyze the outcome in a large series of patients treated with contemporary microsurgical and endovascular techniques. METHODS: For the meta-analysis, a systematic search of Medline, EMBASE, Scopus and Web of Science was done for studies published through November 2015. We included studies that described treatment of PICA-aneurysms with ≥10 patients. Random-effects meta-analysis was used to pool the following outcomes: complete occlusion, technical success, periprocedural morbidity/mortality, stroke rates, aneurysm recurrence/rebleed, CN-palsies rates, and long-term neurological morbidity/mortality. As the second part, aiming to report the current trends and results in treatment strategies for PICA-aneurysms, records of 94 patients treated for PICA-aneurysms between 2000 and 2015 at 3 large referral neurovascular centers were retrospectively reviewed. RESULTS: In the meta-analysis, we...