Prospective Randomized Controlled Trial of Surface-Modified Flow Diverter for Intracranial Aneurysms: Multicenter Assessment of Ischemic and Clinical Outcomes
Flow diverters (FDs) have become a mainstay of endovascular therapy for unruptured intracranial aneurysms (UIAs), yet their implantation carries an inherent risk of ischemic complications. The Pipeline Flex Embolization Device with Shield Technology (PED Shield) and the Lattice Flow Diverter (LFD) are two surface-modified FDs that have shown promising efficacy for mitigating procedure-related ischemic events in prior single-arm or retrospective series. Nevertheless, head-to-head comparative data between these two surface-modified flow diverters remain scarce, and prospective randomized clinical trials are warranted to corroborate their differential performance in lowering ischemic complication risks.This prospective, multicenter randomized controlled trial (RCT) was designed to compare the efficacy of PED Shield versus LFD in reducing ischemic complications after endovascular treatment of UIAs. A total of 196 eligible participants who meet the predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria will be enrolled in the trial. The primary outcome measure is the incidence of new diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI)-positive lesions on brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) within 48 hours after the procedure. The secondary outcome measures consist of perioperative symptomatic ischemic events, all-cause mortality and disability rate during the follow-up period, delayed aneurysm rupture at the 6-month follow-up, complete aneurysm occlusion rate, incidence of major in-stent stenosis (stenosis degree \>50%) at the 6-month follow-up, and the number of new DWI-positive lesions within 48 hours post-procedure.
• Patients were diagnosed with unruptured intracranial aneurysms, and the lesions were evaluated to be suitable for endovascular treatment with flow diverter devices (PED Shield/Lattice).
• During the study period, only one target aneurysm per patient was treated, with the exception of segmental lesions, in which multiple aneurysms located within the same arterial segment were treated with a single or overlapping study devices.
• The target aneurysm was treated solely with flow diverter (FD) implantation in the current study.
• The age of enrolled patients ranged from 18 to 75 years old.
• Patients were capable of understanding the study-related informed consent information and provided written informed consent for the use of their clinical data for research purposes.