Coiling vs. clipping. Hospital stay and procedure time in intracranial aneurysm treatment

Purpose: evaluation of hospital resource allocation in intracranial aneurysm treatment in a medium-volume neurovascular center. Materials and methods: retrospective data analysis included 653 procedures performed on 598 patients with 667 aneurysms (A) from 1990 to 2004. 515 treatments were carried out in ruptured A (clip: n = 370; coil: n = 145) and 138 procedures in non-ruptured A (clip: n = 51, coil: n = 87). Patient management data included procedure time (min), length of stay in the intensive care unit (days), total length of hospital stay (days), and discharge to home ratio. Results: clinical admission grade (rupt. A: Hunt and Hess grade 1-3: clip: 73% coil: 72%) and clinical outcome at discharge (good neurological outcome/mortality rate: rupt. A: clip: 51.1/13.8% coil: 45.5/10.3% non-rupt. A: 88.2/0% coil: 88.5/1.3%) were similar for both treatment modes. The coil procedure time was found to be significantly shorter (rupt. A: coil: 145 min; clip: 203 min; p < 0.01; non-rupt. A: coil: 164 min, clip: 200 min; p < 0.01). Coiling reduced the length of stay in the ICU (rupt. A: coil: 5.3 d; clip: 6d, p < 0.01; non-rupt. A: coil: 1.5d; clip: 2d; p = 0.21) and coiling significantly reduced the length of hospital stay (rupt. A: coil: 21.4d; clip: 26.8 d, p < 0.01; non-rupt. A: coil: 9.2d; clip: 17.5d; p = 0.01). The discharge to home ratio did not differ (rupt. A: clip: 31.6% coil: 29.7% nonrupt. A: clip: 74.5% coil: 80.5%). Conclusion: in a medium-volume neurovascular center, coiling significantly reduced the procedure time, the stay in the ICU, and the length of hospital stay suggesting favorable resource allocation in endovascular therapy. (orig.)