Temporary vessel occlusion is an effective technique used by microvascular surgeons to facilitate dissection and permanent clipping of cerebral aneurysms; however, several questions remain regarding the overall safety of this technique. To identify technical and patient-specific risk factors for perioperative stroke, the authors examined a series of patients in whom induced hypertension and mild hypothermia and intravenous mannitol administration were used as protection during temporary vessel occlusion for aneurysm clipping. The study comprises a nonconcurrent prospective analysis of 132 consecutive aneurysm clippings performed with the aid of temporary vascular occlusion and a specific antiischemic anesthetic protocol at the Massachusetts General Hospital from 1991 to 1993. Factors studied included duration of the temporary clip application, number of occlusive episodes, patient age and neurological status, presence of preoperative subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH), and intraoperative aneurysm rupture ("forced" temporary clipping), as well as whether proximal vessel occlusion or complete aneurysm trapping was used. In a univariate analysis, patient age, intraoperative aneurysm rupture, temporary clipping lasting more than 20 minutes, clipping between the 4th and 10th day after SAH, and multiple clipping episodes were all significantly associated with stroke outcome. Multivariate logistic regression revealed that intraoperative aneurysm rupture (relative risk 5.6, p = 0.02) and a duration of temporary clip application that lasted more than 20 minutes (relative risk 9.4, p = 0.04) were independently associated with stroke outcome. Overall, 5.2% of the patients had postoperative clinical strokes. Based on their findings the authors conclude that temporary clipping is a safe adjunct to aneurysm surgery, particularly when the duration of clipping is short.