Intracranial Aneurysms Associated with Moyamoya Disease in Children: Clinical Features and Long-Term Surgical Outcome

Background: Moyamoya disease (MMD) in children was rarely associated with intracranial aneurysms. The purpose of this study was to report the clinical characteristics and long-term surgical outcomes of pediatric intracranial aneurysms accompanied with MMD.

Methods: Between October 2002 and October 2013, our department treated 9 pediatric MMD patients (aged ≤17 years) with intracranial aneurysms. Clinical and angiographic features, treatment selection, as well as follow-up information were obtained and analyzed. The efficacy of vascularization and the changes of intracranial aneurysms were evaluated with digital subtraction angiography (DSA). We also collected 7 previously published reports to analyze the characteristics of this rare condition.

Results: In our series of 9 patients, 7 were male. The mean age was 11 ± 3.4 years (range 5-16). Seven patients presented with intracranial hemorrhage as the initial manifestation, while 2 patients suffered transient ischemic attacks. The most common aneurysm location was the posterior choroidal artery (4, 44.4%). One anterior choroidal artery aneurysm was completely embolized with Onyx (ev3, Irvine, California, USA). One posterior choroidal artery aneurysm failed due to inaccessibility to the parent artery. Bilateral encephalo-duro-arterio-synangiosis (EDAS) surgery was performed for all the children. During the follow-up period of 6.4 ± 2.2 years (range 3-11), spontaneous occlusion of aneurysm was observed in 4 children, including 1 child with middle cerebral artery aneurysm, 1 with lenticulostriate artery aneurysm, and 2 with posterior choroidal artery aneurysm. Good or fair vascularization was observed in all the 9 children with DSA follow-up. No patients suffered intracranial hemorrhage during the follow-up period.

Conclusions: The long-term survey showed EDAS surgery could effectively increase the cerebral blood flow and maintain good outcomes in children, which may further result in the disappearance of the intracranial aneurysms and decrease the incidence of recurrent hemorrhage.