Within its newly established services, Khoula Hospital represented by the Cerebral Angiography of Radiology Department has succeeded in operating (7) surgeries to treat aneurysm, one of vascular malformations, using an angiogram.

This invasive procedure represents a qualitative shift in the provision of the Sultanate’s health services. The service was not available earlier and thus the patient was treated on-board, which means high costs and increased bleeding risks that lead to strokes or death.

Dr. Ahmed Humood Al Habsi, a neurointerventionalist consultant at Khoula Hospital, explained that aneurysm is an abnormal, weak spot on a blood vessel wall that causes an outward bulging, likened to a bubble. Aneurysms affect a variety of arteries; however, the most significant aneurysms affect the arteries supplying the brain and the heart. An aortic aneurysm affects the body's main artery while brain aneurysm causes hemorrhagic stroke that leads to brain damage and death.

Major risk factors for the development of an aneurysm, Dr. Al Habsi added, can be traced in several things including smoking, high blood pressure, family history of brain aneurysms, and abnormalities at birth, such as tangled blood vessels in your brain.

It is hard to estimate number of patients with brain aneurysm since they are clinically silent. Symptoms do not usually occur unless an aneurysm ruptures. Nonetheless, one can reduce the risk of developing the disease through avoiding activities that damage the blood vessels such as smoking, or diets high in calories, saturated and trans fats.