Treatments and Locations

Treatments and Locations

• Intracranial Angioplasty and Stenting. A neurointerventionalist threads a catheter to your brain arteries through an artery in your groin or wrist. A balloon is then inflated to expand the narrowed artery. In some cases, a stent is then inserted to support the opened artery.
• Intracranial-Extracranial (EC-IC) Bypass Surgery. This is a surgical procedure which reroutes blood supply around the plaque-blocked area. After making an opening in the skull (craniotomy), the neurosurgeon detaches a donor artery from the scalp and redirects it to the inside of the skull, connecting it to an artery on the surface of the brain. Now bypassing the blocked vessel, the artery can supply blood to the brain. A bypass is usually recommended when the blockage in the brain artery cannot be safely or adequately treated with angioplasty.