Mechanical evaluation of cerebral aneurysm clip scissoring phenomenon: comparison of titanium alloy and cobalt alloy

Cerebral aneurysm clip blades crossing during surgery is well known as scissoring. Scissoring might cause rupture of the aneurysm due to laceration of its neck. Although aneurysm clip scissoring is well known, there have been few reports describing the details of this phenomenon. Quasi-scissoring phenomenon was introduced mechanically by rotating the clip head attached to a silicone sheet. The anti-scissoring torque during the twist of the blades was measured by changing the depth and the opening width. The closing force was also evaluated. Sugita straight clips of titanium alloy and cobalt alloy were used in the present study. In both materials, the anti-scissoring torque and the closing force were bigger 3 mm in thickness than 1 mm. The initial closing forces and the anti-scissoring torque values at each rotation angles were increased in proportion to depth. Closing forces of titanium alloy clip were slightly higher than those of cobalt alloy clip. By contrast, anti-scissoring torque values of cobalt alloy clip were bigger than those of titanium alloy clip in all conditions. In condition of 3 mm in thickness and 3 mm in depth, anti-scissoring torque vales of titanium alloy clip decreased suddenly when an angle surpassed 70 degrees. Aneurysm clip scissoring phenomenon tends to occur when clipping the aneurysm neck only with blade tips. Based on the results of this experiment, titanium alloy clip is more prone to scissoring than cobalt alloy clip under the condition that the wide blade separation distance and the shallow blade length.