Surgical Outcome of Cerebral Aneurysm Clipping Treated with Immunosuppressants: Report of 11 Cases and Review of the Literature

There are no reports on the outcomes of clippings in patients who receive immunosuppressants, for example, due to connective tissue diseases or following organ transplantation. We thoroughly reviewed these cases focusing on the perioperative management phase. The study included 11 patients with intracranial aneurysms who were taking immunosuppressants; between 2007 and 2014. We performed 12 clipping surgeries. Their clinical records were reviewed for age and gender, aneurysms’ location and size, perioperative management of the immunosuppressive drugs, and surgical complications. The study included nine females and two males, aged between 52 and 71 years (mean 60.1 ± 8.5 years). The clinical presentation in five cases was subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH); the aneurysm was incidentally diagnosed in six patients (7 aneurysms). The reasons for taking immunosuppressants were autoimmune disorder in nine patients and liver transplantation in two patients. Daily intake of oral immunosuppressants for the patients with liver transplantation was discontinued for 2–4 days, and no infectious complications were evidenced. The weekly course of immunosuppressive drugs for the patients with autoimmune disorder was continued in eight of nine patients. Caution must be exercised when considering the suitability of clipping for patients taking immunosuppressants, but surgery outcomes are generally favorable; when operative treatment is required, we believe it to be comparatively safe, if the perioperative management is conducted in close collaboration with the relevant departments.