Does treatment of ruptured intracranial aneurysms within 24 hours improve clinical outcome?

The purpose of this study was to analyze whether treating ruptured intracranial aneurysms within 24 hours of subarachnoid hemorrhage improves clinical outcome.

An 11-year database of consecutive ruptured intracranial aneurysms treated with endovascular coiling or craniotomy and clipping was analyzed. Outcome was measured by the modified Rankin Scale at 6 months. Our policy is to treat all cases within 24 hours of subarachnoid hemorrhage. Treatment delays are due to nonclinical logistical factors.

Two hundred thirty cases were coiled or clipped within 24 hours of subarachnoid hemorrhage and 229 at >24 hours. No difference in age, gender, smoking, family history of subarachnoid hemorrhage, aneurysm size, or aneurysm location was found between the groups. Poor World Federation of Neurological Surgeons clinical grade patients were overrepresented in the ultra-early group. Increasing age and higher World Federation of Neurological Surgeons clinical grade were predictors of poor outcome. Eight point zero percent (16 of 199) of cases treated within 24 hours of SAH (ultra-early) were dependent or dead at 6 months compared with 14.4% (30 of 209) of those treated at >24 hours post-SAH (delayed; (χ2, P0.044) [corrected]. A total of 3.5% of cases coiled within 24 hours were dependent or dead at 6 months compared with 12.5% of cases coiled at 1 to 3 days, an 82% relative risk reduction and a 10.2% absolute risk reduction (χ2, P=0.040). These groups did not differ in age, World Federation of Neurological Surgeons clinical grade, aneurysm size, or aneurysm location.

Treatment of ruptured aneurysms within 24 hours is associated with improved clinical outcomes compared with treatment at >24 hours. The benefit is more pronounced for coiling than clipping.