Introduction: The flow diverting stent (FDS) is a relatively new endovascular therapeutic tool specifically designed to reconstruct the parent artery and divert blood flow along the normal anatomical course and away from the aneurysm neck and dome.
Methods: Retrospective review of prospectively built clinical and imaging database of patients treated with FDS at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square, London, UK was done.
Results: Between 18/03/2008 and 10/11/2011, 80 patients underwent 84 FDS insertion procedures for various indications. Mean duration of clinical follow-up was 11.3 ± 9.3 months and of imaging follow-up was 10.6 ± 9.3 months. Sixty-seven had anterior circulation aneurysms while 17 had posterior circulation aneurysms. Seven (8.3%) patients died (two probably not related, giving a procedure-related mortality of 5.9%), eight had permanent new deficit (9.5%), 20 had transient deficit (23%) and 49 (58%) had no complications. There was a trend towards bad outcome with larger posterior circulation aneurysms. Angiographic follow-up showed 38% cure rate at 6 months and 61% at 12 months.
Conclusion: FDS should only be used following multidisciplinary discussion in selected patients. Further data is required regarding long-term safety, efficacy and indications.