DON’T LET THEM OPEN YOUR HEAD!

A GLOBAL PATIENT RESOURCE FOR MINIMALLY
INVASIVE BRAIN ANEURYSM TREATMENT

What Is Minimally Invasive
Aneurysm Treatment?

Minimally invasive surgery for brain aneurysms, performed through an artery in the leg, has been used by physicians at top hospitals across the country for more than two decades. These techniques: stenting, coiling and flow diversion, result in lower morbidity and mortality, have shorter recovery times, and do not entail removing part of the skull, which is required for open brain surgery aneurysm treatment.

STENTING

When a stent is used to treat brain aneurysms, the doctor inserts a catheter into an artery and threads it through the body to the aneurysm. The coils fill the aneurysm, block circulation, and cause the blood to clot, which obliterates the aneurysm.

COILING

Endovascular coiling is a procedure performed to block blood flow into an aneurysm. During coiling, a catheter is passed through the groin up into the artery containing the aneurysm. Platinum coils are then released.

FLOW DIVERSION

Flow diversion is an endovascular technique whereby instead of placing a device inside the aneurysm sac, such as with coiling, the device is placed in the parent blood vessel with a catheter to divert blood flow away from the aneurysm itself.

Conventional Open-Skull Clipping Recovery: 6-8 weeks
Minimally Invasive Endovascular Repair: 2 days

Changing the Tide

Many competing practitioners in the U.S. use minimally-invasive techniques less than 50% of the time, opting for the riskier, more expensive option. This must change, and Dr. David Siker in Portland, Oregon is spearheading that change. His primary goal is to educate medical practitioners and the general public about minimally-invasive treatment of brain aneurysms, and persuade his colleagues to raise their use of these techniques to above the 90% level.

M-I Treatment is Safer

In the years since he has become one of the pre-eminent specialists in endovascular coiling and flow diversion techniques for treating brain aneurysms. These procedures involve inserting a catheter into an artery in the groin area, and using a stent or platinum coils to reduce blood flow to the aneurysm. It is substantially less risky than a craniotomy, and the patient usually leaves the hospital the next day, immediately able to resume normal daily activities.

Many hospitals promote open brain surgery (riskier with longer recovery) to treat brain aneurysms 50% of the time or more, rather than minimally invasive techniques. Find a skilled specialist dedicated to treating your brain aneurysm without open brain surgery.

Find A Specialist Near You

Don’t Let Them Open Your Head!

“Cutting through the skull with a saw and drill is dangerous, expensive,
and puts an enormous and undue amount of stress on the patient’s body.”
– Dr. David Siker

Live in Oregon or Washington?

Oregon’s Most Experienced Brain Aneurysm Specialist

Dr. David Siker has treated more brain aneurysms in the Greater Portland Area than any other physician in the last twenty two years. He has performed over 1100 neurointerventionalist procedures, more than 95% with minimally-invasive techniques that do not require open brain surgery. Dr. Siker has been passionate about these techniques since his graduate training in neurovascular surgery at Georgetown. He was walking through the surgery suite one day when he witnessed a new physician from UCLA treating a brain aneurysm through an artery in the leg. “When I saw that,” says Dr. Siker, “I knew immediately that I would find a way to be that doctor.”

DR. DAVID SIKER

Director of Neurointervention
Legacy Hospital Systems