[Life following acute subarachnoid haemorrhage]

We studied the outcome after aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage from a patient perspective. We compared outcomes of microsurgical and endovascular aneurysm repair and assessed the impact of gender and age on quality of life.

60 patients undergoing repair of a ruptured intracranial aneurysm from January to July 2001 were included consecutively (35 women). Endovascular repair was performed on 39 and microsurgery on 21. The mean age was 55 years. Quality of life was assessed 3 and 12 months after the bleed using WHOQOL-BREF and Rankin score questionnaires, and through interviews (n = 9).

A total of 40 of 58 patients returned both questionnaires; two died. Twelve months after the bleed, 26 of 44 patients reported a "good" or "very good" subjective quality of life, 3 out of 44 reported a "poor", and 15 of out 44 a "neither good nor poor" subjective quality of life. Males reported a significantly better quality of life (p=0.008). Women reported feeling more depressed and also significantly more symptoms of asthenia, less energy and working capacity. We found no significant differences pertaining to age. Despite moderate disabilities, the respondents generally scored high on quality of life after subarachnoid haemorrhage. The gender differences clearly deserving further investigations.