Basilar artery perforator aneurysms (BAPAs): review of the literature and classification.

ABSTRACT

Basilar artery perforator aneurysms (BAPAs) are an uncommon subtype of perforating artery aneurysms, with only 18 published cases since their initial description in 1996 by Ghogawala et al To date, there are only seven published cases of ruptured BAPAs treated using endovascular techniques. Given the rarity of these aneurysms, the natural history and ideal approach to treatment has not been established. We describe a new endovascular approach to treating these aneurysms using staged telescoping stents, summarize all published cases of BAPAs, and present a unique classification system to enable future papers to standardize descriptions.