Hypertensive thalamic hemorrhage: analysis of short-term outcome

Hypertension is the main cause of intracerebral hemorrhage with a thalamic location frequency that varies from 6% to 26.5%.

We aimed to identify clinical and radiological features that could impact the short-term prognosis in patients with hypertensive thalamic hemorrhage (HTH).

Consecutive patients presenting to a tertiary referral hospital with HTH were analyzed from 2010 to 2014. Clinical features at emergency department and a 30-day outcome using the modified Rankin Scale (mRS) were obtained.

A total of 104 patients were studied (53 women, mean age 68.2 years, range 27-91 years), 91 (87.5%) of them with hypertension history. Mean hemorrhage volume was 12.2 mL (range 2-45 mL), without significant differences according to gender or age group. Irruption into the ventricular system occurred in 79 (76%) cases. Thirty-day mortality was 38.5% and occurred with a higher frequency in men, in patients with GCS <8, intraventricular irruption, ventriculostomy, and intracerebral hemorrhage volumes >15 mL.

Although HTH is associated with relatively small hemorrhage volume, it had a higher frequency of ventricular irruption and bad prognosis at short-term.