Brain aneurysm complications are rare at M Health Fairview
No one wants to hear that they have a brain aneurysm. A brain aneurysm is a weak spot or a bulge in the wall of a blood vessel in the brain. If the aneurysm breaks, it can cause bleeding in the brain – a serious condition known as a hemorrhagic stroke. At M Health Fairview, every care option is available.
Sometimes the best treatment is even no treatment at all, said Ramachandra Tummala, MD, an endovascular and neurosurgeon with M Health Fairview and program director of the Endovascular Surgical Neuroradiology Program at University of Minnesota Medical School. That’s because some aneurysms are small and unlikely to rupture.
“We believe in comprehensive management of unruptured aneurysms,” Tummala said. “We follow people for years and years and years, if necessary. If a patient does require treatment, then we think about the best method. We don't just stop following people after the procedure is done. That's not in our nature. We continue to follow people because there's small risks of aneurysms coming back, or new aneurysms forming in the same person. We try to be really the point of care for someone's aneurysm.”
Learn how M Health Fairview Neuroscience Care is a leader in caring for people with unruptured aneurysms.
Every care option is on the table
Some brain aneurysms are small and harmless, while some could lead to clots or bleeding in the brain. Brain aneurysms are usually found on scans for unrelated issues. While it might be scary to learn that you have a brain aneurysm, treatment isn’t always urgent. You might have time to explore your care options.
The trend in treating unruptured aneurysms has been to use minimally invasive techniques. In a catheter-based procedure, for example, doctors thread a small catheter through the body’s blood vessels to the brain to fix the aneurysm. For some patients, open-skull surgery may be the better option due to the location of the aneurysm or other factors. But surgery might not be available at smaller hospitals.
“Some aneurysms are actually safer to treat with the traditional, more invasive methods,” Tummala said. “More invasive doesn't mean more risk necessarily, just as less invasive doesn't always mean less risk. I think those concepts sometimes get blurred.”
When new patients come to M Health Fairview, they aren’t committed to a certain kind of treatment. First, doctors assess the patient to see if they even need treatment.
“A misconception is that every aneurysm poses this immense risk, and that's not true,” Tummala said. “Most aneurysms never bleed, so we observe hundreds and hundreds of patients. We don't treat everybody who has any aneurysm, because many people don't need treatment at all, but they do need follow up.”
M Health Fairview also takes a patient-centered approach. The team discusses options for each individual and offers a recommendation but ultimately, it’s up to the patient.
Our team’s success is reflected in a low mortality rate for both in-hospital and all causes of death 30 days after treatment, said Sarah Engkjer, MA, RN neuroscience service line manager with M Health Fairview.
Your home for aneurysm care
Once you’re a patient with our endovascular team, we want to be your first call for all things aneurysm.
“We don't send you back to your primary care provider to deal with the follow up MRIs and CT scans,” Tummala said. "We take care of all of that.”
Since it’s not always easy for people to get to M Health Fairview University of Minnesota Medical Center or M Health Fairview Southdale Hospital for their aneurysm care, the team is happy to meet with you virtually.
“We're sensitive about everything – from traveling in bad weather to gas prices – because all these things matter, and we try to be as accommodating as possible,” Tummala said. “If a referring provider thinks that the situation is urgent, we always take that into account."
In addition, we offer acute rehab services and connect our patients to an aneurysm support group that meets both virtually and in-person.
“Our care model is comprehensive,” Engkjer said. “If it were me or a family member with an aneurysm I would want to be cared for here.”
In addition to providing excellent patient care, our team is at the forefront of aneurysm research, discovering more sophisticated imaging techniques and treatments.
