Non-invasive way found to treat aneurysms MAYWOOD, Ill., Feb. 12 (UPI) -- Life-threatening aneurysms can be treated non-invasively with a catheter threaded through blood vessels up to the brain, a U.S. neurosurgeon said. Dr. William W. Ashley Jr., a neurosurgeon at the Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Ill., and Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, said traditional surgery to repair an aneurysm is a highly invasive procedure, involving opening the skull, retracting the brain and placing a clip to seal off the ruptured blood vessel. Recovery takes months, and patients can suffer cognitive deficits, Ashley added. An aneurysm is a bulge in a blood vessel. As the bulge expands, the artery wall thins and eventually, it can leak or burst, causing damage similar to a stroke, Ashley explained. An aneurysm could leak and rupture, causing an excruciating headache and subarachnoid hemorrhage -- bleeding in the area between the brain and the thin tissues that cover the brain -- causing what patients describe as the worse headache of their life. A new generation of neurosurgeons are using a less-invasive endovascular technique to repair aneurysms and other vascular problems in the brain. The endovascular technique has the neurosurgeon thread the catheter -- thin tube -- in an artery in the groin and guide it up past the heart and carotid artery into the brain. Tiny coils of platinum wire are released through the catheter and into the bulging aneurysm. The bulge is filled with coils, causing the blood to clot, sealing off the aneurysm, Ashley said.