Blister aneurysms of the internal carotid artery (ICA) arise at a nonbranching site of the dorsal wall of the supraclinoid portion of the ICA. 1,17,30,31,36,38,45,48,53,54 These types of aneurysms are rare and their management remains difficult. Whether the approach to these aneurysms is surgical or endovascular, the literature shows a high mortality and morbidity rate due to their fragile wall with its high rate of rupture during treatment. 28,38,46,48 However, this grim prognosis is based on results that indiscriminately group all blister aneurysms together without taking into account the heterogeneous appearance of these lesions, thus making different treatment strategies difficult to assess. The first goal of this study was to ascertain whether blister aneurysm morphology played a role in the different pitfalls that may be encountered during surgery, and whether this morphology would require adapted surgical strategies. The second goal was to investigate whether any morphological differences could be categorized into abbreviatioN ICA = internal carotid artery. obJect Blister aneurysms of the supraclinoid part of the internal carotid artery (ICA) are known for their high morbidity and mortality rates related to treatment, regardless of whether the treatment is surgical or endovascular. However, this grim prognosis is based on results that indiscriminately group all blister aneurysms together without taking into account the heterogeneous appearance of these lesions. The goal of this study was 2-fold: to determine whether different blister aneurysm morphologies present different pitfalls, which would then require different surgical strategies, as well as to determine whether there are identifiable subgroups of these types of aneurysms based on morphology. methods The authors reviewed the charts, cerebral catheter angiograms, surgical reports, and intraoperative videos of all ICA blister aneurysms treated surgically at the Centre Hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal from 2005 to 2012 to investigate whether there was a relationship between morphology and pitfalls, and whether different surgical strategies had been used according to these pitfalls. During this review process the authors noted 4 distinct morphological aspects. These 4 aspects led to a review of the English and French literature on blister aneurysms in which imaging was available, to determine whether other cases could also be classified into the same 4 subgroups based on these morphological aspects. results The retrospective review of the authors' series of 10 patients allowed a division into 4 distinct subtypes: Type I (classic), Type II (berry-like), Type III (longitudinal), and Type IV (circumferential). These subtypes may at times be progressive stages in the arterial anomaly, and could represent a continuum. Each subtype described in this paper presented its own pitfalls and required specific surgical adaptations. Upon reviewing the literature the authors retained 35 studies involving a total of 61 cases of blister aneurysms, and all cases...