Making a bypass in the brain is sometimes the last treatment option in very ill patients. Conventional bypass techniques are accompanied by high ischemic risks because an artery in the brain has to be temporary closed to attach the bypass with sutures.
The ELANA technique, invented by professor Tulleken from the University Medical Center (UMC) in Utrecht, The Netherlands, circumvents this problem. The technique facilitates the construction of a bypass without the need to temporarily close the recipient brain artery. The technique is mostly used to treat giant intracranial aneurysms (aneurysms more than 2.5 cm wide) or to give new blood supply to patients with an occluded artery to the brain (ischemia).