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Object. Transluminal angioplasty has become a widely used adjunct therapy to medical management of symptomatic cerebral vasospasm following subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). Despite anecdotal reports of universal, angiographically confirmed reversal of vasospasm and high rates of clinical improvement, no rigorous examination of the efficacy of this procedure has been conducted. In this study the authors assess the efficacy of the aforementioned procedure.

Methods. Thirty-eight patients enrolled as part of the North American trial of tirilazad in aneurysmal SAH underwent transluminal angioplasty for symptomatic cerebral vasospasm. Fifty-three percent of these patients showed good recovery or moderate disability based on their 3-month Glasgow Outcome Scale score.

Among the 38 patients who underwent angioplasty, the severity and type of vasospasm …