ABSTRACT
Surgical repair of intracranial aneurysm was introduced approximately 70 years ago ( 1 ). Hallmarks of improvement for treatment of patients with cerebral aneurysms have been the implementation of the operating microscope in the 1960s and the application of calcium antagonists in the late 1980s, which served to prevent hemorrhage-associated cerebral vasospasm and reduce cerebral ischemia. Endovascular treatment options for cerebral aneurysms were developed in the 1970s, but it was not until the early 1990s when the gold standard of surgical repair was challenged by the introduction of functional embolic material in the form of Guglielmi detachable coils ( 2 ).
