clinic pt. 2

Got to witness a coil embolization today of a basilar tip aneurysm today. The basilar artery comes up the brainstem - some pontine arteries and cerebellar arteries branch from it. It bifurcates into the two posterior cerebral arteries (PCA), but at that junction, oftentimes an aneurysm can result:



The patient was sedated and the doctors worked for a long, long time performing a coil embolization. Basically they take a metal wire made out of some inert metal like titanium or platinum (today they used eV3 TRANSEND Platinums), run it up through the vessel to the aneurysm, then coil it a bunch of times inside the aneurysm, thereby reducing if not halting blood flow to that area. Over time the aneurysm becomes harmless as a result. It shows up on scans like this:



There are supposed to be two more coil embolizations done tomorrow, which will be an exciting day. The aneurysms are supposed to have a wide-necked too, which will make the coil process interesting. If you want to see what it looks like in real time:



In other news, remember how I had gone on and on about the fabled Dr. Kar a long time ago? After getting waitlisted at Dalhousie, I decided to start doing my backup applications for an MSc. Psychiatry. I'm meeting Dr. Kar tomorrow to discuss a possible role as a Master's student doing Alzheimer's research, one of my favourite areas. Hopefully it all goes well and my lack of research hours doesn't deter me from this. V. excited!!!