Dr. Koji Ebersole, an endovascular neurosurgeon at Kansas University Hospital, left, is pictured with his patient Marjorie Filipiak, of Liberty, Mo. Filipiak was the first patient at KU Hospital to undergo a new treatment for brain aneurysms called Pipeline Embolization Device. The treatment was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in April. Ebersole and Dr. Alan Reeves, an interventional neuroradiologist, performed her surgery Jan. 5, 2012.

Last spring, 65-year-old Marjorie Filipiak’s heart surgeon inadvertently ran a test that included a scan of her brain, and he found that she had an unruptured brain aneurysm.

“It was purely accidental,” she said.

Filipiak was referred to Kansas University Hospital where she was told there were two surgeries available to treat brain aneurysms, an abnormal ballooning in a blood vessel, but both were too risky because her aneurysm was large and located in a section of the brain that was unreachable.

Dr. Alan Reeves, an interventional neuroradiologist at KU Hospital, said the chances of permanent nerve damage or having the aneurysm rupture during surgery were too high, so they recommended that Filipiak do nothing.

“That’s hard to recommend,” he said, because there’s a slim chance that the aneurysm still could rupture and cause death.

Dr. Alan Reeves

According to the Brain Aneurysm Foundation, there are an estimated 6 million Americans who have an unruptured brain aneurysm, and about 25,000 will suffer a rupture this year  — or one every 18 minutes. They’re fatal in about 40 percent of cases, and of those who survive, about 66 percent suffer some permanent neurological deficit.

For months, Filipiak, 65, of Liberty, Mo., went about life as best she could knowing there was that slim chance.

“There was no other option,” she said.

In late summer, she received good news. The Food and Drug Administration had approved a new treatment called Pipeline Embolization Device, or PED, for brain aneurysms, and she was a candidate for the procedure. 

Reeves said the treatment involves inserting a wire mesh cylinder into a patient’s artery using a very fine catheter. The mesh PED redirects the blood flow away from the aneurysm, causing it to clot.

“This device allows us to treat an aneurysm without having to touch it or manipulate it, which prevents it from rupturing,” he said.

On Jan. 5, Filipiak was the first patient to receive the PED treatment at Kansas University Hospital, and it was the first treatment performed in the state or the Kansas City metropolitan area. Filipiak went home the next day.

“I was not there very long, and surprisingly, there was not much pain,” she said. “I’m just glad that I’m alive and don’t have to worry about it anymore.”

KU Hospital has performed one other PED surgery this month.

“We think this treatment has the potential to revolutionize the way we can treat an aneurysm with minimally invasive methods,” Reeves said.