Cognitive outcome after surgical clipping versus endovascular coiling in patients with subarachnoid hemorrhage due to ruptured anterior communicating artery aneurysm

Ruptured anterior communicating artery aneurysms are commonly associated with deficits in memory and executive functions. However, little studies are available on the effect of surgical clipping (SC) and endovascular coiling (EC) on cognitive functioning. This study evaluates cognitive functioning in 35 patients with subarachnoid hemorrhage after ruptured anterior communicating artery aneurysm (ACoA) compared to 20 healthy controls (HC) and assesses the effect of SC (n = 19) compared to EC (n = 16) on cognitive performances. All participants were investigated with an extensive neuropsychological test battery assessing attention, memory and visuospatial and executive functions. The strength of this study is an in-depth investigation of several cognitive domains together and several memory functions together within the auditory–verbal and visuospatial memory domain for unrelated and related information. The ACoA group was significantly more deficient in attention, auditory–verbal and visuospatial memory and executive functions compared to HCs. No significant differences were found between both groups concerning visuospatial functions. Within the patient group, the SC group, as compared to the EC group, showed a significantly worse performance for auditory–verbal and visuospatial memory. No significant differences could be detected between both groups with regard to attention and visuospatial and executive functions. In conclusion, this study provides evidence for the advantage of EC in ACoA patients over SC in terms of cognitive outcome.