BOSTON -- A noninvasive procedure allows surgeons to repair potentially fatal aneurysms before they rupture.

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Cerebral aneurysms can be fatal if the weakened blood vessels burst. Typically, aneurysms can be repaired with invasive surgery.

A new technique called coil therapy allows surgeons to repair the blood vessels with a procedure that may have fewer side effects. A surgeon makes a small incision in the groin and passes a tiny tube through the body and into the skull.

When the aneurysm is reached, soft coils made of platinum are inserted to cut off the blood supply.

"Once you fill it up, blood won't go into the aneurysm, so you prevent any blood flow into this space," said Dr. In Sup Choi of the Lahey Clinic, which has locations throughout Massachusetts.

Patient Yvette LaBonte, 73, became a candidate for the surgery when doctors discovered she had four aneurysms in her brain after she complained of headaches.

"I was first diagnosed after I complained of a headache," LaBonte said. "My neighbor took me to the emergency room."

LaBonte had surgery to clip two of the aneurysms, but a rare complication kept her in rehabilitation for months.

With two potentially dangerous aneurysms left, doctors decided to try coil therapy. Choi used three-dimensional models of the brain to map out where the aneurysms were before going forward with the procedure.

Coil therapy allows doctors to reach aneurysms that typical surgery sometimes can't, and recovery time is often faster. Not enough research has been done on the technique to know whether it is more effective in the long term, doctors said.

"Coiling has only been done in the last 10 years, so we still don't know if it's a permanent cure," said Dr. Carlos David of the Lahey Clinic. "It seems to be a good treatment in the majority of cases."