[Guidelines for diagnosis and management of aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage: top issues and prospective]

Aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH) is a kind of hemorrhagic stroke with high mortality and morbidity. Although the preoperative diagnosis, surgical clipping, endovascular treatment, and intensive care have progressed in recent years, the overall prognosis of aSAH patients remains poor. In 2011, the Neurocritical Care Society organized an international, multidisciplinary consensus conference addressed the critical care management of SAH. In 2012, the American Stroke Association (AHA) updated the guidelines of diagnosis and treatment of aSAH published in 2009. In 2013, European Stroke Organization established the guideline for management of intracranial aneurysms and SAH. In 2014, the Korean Society of Interventional Neuroradiology (KSIN) published clinical practice guideline for the management of ruptured and unruptured aneurysms. The guideline for diagnosis and management of aSAH for Chinese patients has been drafted in this year. Thus, the diagnosis and management of aSAH is a hot topic in neurosurgery. This editorial summarizes the above mentioned guidelines and focuses on the progress and update of these guidelines. In this article we discuss the advantage and disadvantage of those imaging techniques, the pros and cons of surgical clipping and endovascular treatment.