Microsurgical Clipping of Ophthalmic Aneurysms in an Endovascular Era: Sonopet-Assisted Intradural Clinoidectomy and Other Tenets

These video cases present some unique technical tenets for microsurgical clipping of proximal internal carotid artery aneurysms (Video 1). The first patient is a 49-year-old woman with a history of a prior ruptured and treated right middle cerebral artery aneurysm who was found to have growth of known left middle cerebral artery and left internal carotid artery ophthalmic segment aneurysms on radiographic studies. An intradural clinoidectomy with Sonopet, with proximal control at cervical carotid and wide sylvian fissure exposure with ample sharp dissection of the aneurysm anatomy, allowed safe clipping of the ophthalmic aneurysm in this case. The second patient is a 39-year-old woman with a history of a prior left middle cerebral artery M2 occlusion with recent mechanical thrombectomy. The patient was found to have a 6-mm incidental, unruptured right internal cerebral artery paraophthalmic segment and 3-mm right posterior communicating artery aneurysm on radiographic studies. This patient underwent microsurgical clipping given unique patient factors. A similar controlled intradural clinoidectomy, with proximal cervical ICA control and aneurysmal segment trapping, allowed safe aneurysm exclusion. For patients with multiple aneurysms such as in these cases, the deeper proximal aneurysm should generally be treated first. The videos illustrate some key technical points in this regard.