A patient from Lancashire has become the first in the UK to benefit from a major international study which aims to compile a medical database of how best to treat brain aneurysms by coiling.

Jean Hodgsons, from Nelson, East Lancashire, underwent a successful brain coiling operation after signing up to the international Trial Endovascular Aneurysm Management (TEAM) study.

Brain coiling and embolization is a recently developed brain surgery technique for life-threatening neurovascular diseases, such as aneurysms.

The treatment, which is available in Lancashire at the Royal Preston Hospital, based in Fulwood, Preston, leads to significantly better long-term survival rates than major brain surgery and will save or improve the lives of around 100 to 120 patients each year.

The traditional treatment for a burst aneurysm is to open the skull and place a metal clip across the neck of the aneurysm to stop it from re-bleeding.

The newer treatment involves inserting a catheter through the femoral artery in the leg up into the blood vessel to fill the aneurysm with tiny coils.

The operation can last between four to five hours and research shows that it reduces the likelihood of disability or death by just under a quarter.

Jean suffered a burst aneurysm, known as a subarachnoid haemorrhage, in 2002, which brought on stroke like symptoms, left her paralysed down one side and resulted in her losing her eyesight.

This year another aneurysm was diagnosed.

Jean’s involvement in the TEAM study enabled doctors to determine whether to treat the aneurysm by endovascular coiling preventively or defer treatment until other indications arise.

The study selected Jean for coiling and the operation was successfully carried out at Royal Preston Hospital, part of Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Her husband Ian said: “Jean continues to go the Royal Preston Hospital for treatment and assessment and during a routine scan an aneurysm was found.

"This led to our involvement in the study which is compiling information from people across the world.

“Jean’s information was submitted into the computer and it determined her treatment.

"She underwent a coiling operation at Royal Preston Hospital and she is okay now. We are living with more confidence.

"In the past, every time she went over a bump or coughed or choked on something we feared the worst, which is only natural.

"The coiling has alleviated some of that and taken some pressure off.”

The coiling service at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is being provided by Dr Tufail Patankar and Dr Siddhartha Wuppalapati.

Dr Patankar said: “Coiling involves threading a catheter from an artery in the leg up to the aneurysm under x-ray guidance to place platinum or specially coated coils into the aneurysm.

“In time the TEAM study will hopefully provide answers about management of unruptured aneurysms and we are delighted that one of our patients has been the first in the UK to benefit from this international project.

“Since Jean, we have successfully recruited another patient in this study.

"Hopefully by the end of this year we will also be involved with two other big international studies with aneurysms and arteriovenous malformations.

"AVM is a congenital disorder of the connections between veins and arteries in the vascular system.

“The credit also goes to our Trust and research and development department, which is very efficient in processing studies.

"We only started this service two years ago compared to other centres in the region, but in a short while the service has been commended by number of centres in UK.

“The credit really goes to the staff.”

The TEAM study is the first and currently only large multi-centre prospective randomized controlled trial (RCT) of endovascular management of unruptured aneurysm as compared to indefinite deferral of treatment in the world.

It aims to recruit up to 2002 patients in about 60 centres in three years.

This will produce the largest ever prospective randomized study in unruptured aneurysm management.

The main goal of the trial is to determine what is the best thing to do when an intracranial aneurysm is incidentally discovered on imaging studies of the brain (CT or MRI).