Background: Endovascular treatment has become the major choice for treating intracranial aneurysm (IA). The development of novel endovascular devices for IA treatment is, therefore, socially important. For this purpose, a preclinical animal model to test a prototype of devices plays a crucial role. The major problems regarding currently used preclinical animal models, mainly in medium-to-large animals, are the expense and the lack of IA pathology, as they only mimic the morphological aspect. Methods: Sprague–Dawley rats were used, and the new bifurcation was formed via end-to-side anastomosis of carotid arteries. An aneurysm lesion induced at the newly formed bifurcation site was macroscopically assessed. Endovascular coiling of the induced aneurysm was then done. Results: An aneurysm lesion with a balloon-like shape, as in human cases, was induced at the newly formed bifurcation site. Some of the induced lesions spontaneously ruptured. Endovascular coiling was successfully done by using the micro-catheter and coil used at the clinical site. Conclusions: The rat model of IAs established here provides a novel platform contributing to the development of endovascular devices to treat IAs and, therefore, significantly facilitates the development of devices to achieve more effective treatment.
Itani et al. (Thu,) studied this question.