Clinical use of mechanically detachable coils for interventional neuroradiology

Abstract

We report our clinical experience of mechanically detachable coils (MDC) for neurointerventional radiology. We embolised nine patients with various cerebro-vascular diseases using 84 MDC: three had intracranial aneurysms, five dural arteriovenous fistulae, and one a cerebral arteriovenous malformation. All were successfully embolised by MDC except one, in whom premature coil detachment occurred and the residual coil was retrieved by the snare technique. The advantage of MDC is the accurate and compact coil positioning compared with conventional microcoils. However, special care must be taken to avoid premature coil detachment and coil stretch, both possible complications of MDC.