Both surgical clipping and endovascular embolization of unruptured intracranial aneurysms are associated with long-term improvement in self-reported quantitative headache scores.

BACKGROUND

The most common presenting symptom for unruptured intracranial aneurysms (UIAs) is headache (HA). However, most experts believe that UIAs associated with HAs are unrelated and incidental.

OBJECTIVE

To analyze the incidence and characterization of HAs in patients with UIAs before and after treatment with either surgical clipping or endovascular embolization.

METHODS

We prospectively determined the presence, sidedness, and severity of HAs preoperatively in patients who presented to the senior author with a UIA. A validated, quantitative 11-point HA pain scale was used in all patients. The same HA assessments were performed again on these patients an average of 32.4 months postoperatively.

RESULTS

In this study, 92.45% (n = 53) of patents for whom we were able to obtain both a preoperative and postoperative pain score had an improvement in their HAs. The average quantitative HA score was 5.87 preoperatively vs 1.39 postoperatively (P < .001). There was no relationship found between the following: (1) HA severity vs aneurysm size, (2) sidedness of aneurysm vs sidedness of HA, and (3) HA improvement after surgical vs endovascular treatment.

CONCLUSIONS

This study suggests that surgical and endovascular treatment of a UIA is associated with dramatic improvement in self-reported HA score an average of 32.4 months postoperatively.