Some patients with neurological disease are successfully treated with neurovascular surgery. MaineHealth neurovascular surgeons treat a wide range of neurological conditions, including stroke and brain aneurysm.
What is neurovascular surgery?
Neurovascular surgery is a minimally invasive procedure using advanced technology and medical expertise to treat patients with neurological diseases of the head, neck and spine. The surgery is done from inside the blood vessels. During surgery, the surgeon threads a small catheter through an artery or vein in the groin to the affected blood vessel for treatment. Neurovascular surgery can successfully treat several cerebrovascular conditions.
- Stroke occurs when a blood vessel in the brain is blocked or bursts. Without blood and the oxygen it carries, part of the brain starts to die.
- Ischemic stroke occurs when a blood clot blocks a blood vessel in the brain. The clot may form in the blood vessel or travel from somewhere else in the blood system.
- Hemorrhagic stroke develops when an artery in the brain leaks or bursts. This causes bleeding inside the brain or near the surface of the brain.
- Transient ischemic attack (TIA) happens when blood flow to part of the brain is stopped for a short time. It's also called a mini-stroke, because the symptoms are the same as a stroke but they don't last long or cause lasting damage.
- Cerebral (brain) aneurysm is a weak or thin spot on a blood vessel in the brain that balloons out and fills with blood. The bulging aneurysm can put pressure on a nerve or surrounding brain tissue.
- Arteriovenous malformation (AVM) results from abnormal, snarled tangles of blood vessels that cause multiple irregular connections between the arteries and veins. These malformations most often occur in the spinal cord and in any part of the brain or on its surface, but can develop elsewhere in the body.
- Arteriovenous fistula (AVF) is an abnormal connection between an artery and a vein.
- Cerebral artery stenosis happens when an artery inside the skull becomes blocked by plaque or disease.
- Vertebral artery stenosis is a narrowing of an artery that supplies blood to the brain.
- Carotid artery dissection begins as a tear in one of the carotid arteries of the neck, which allows blood under arterial pressure to enter the wall of the artery and split its layers.