Ruptured cerebral aneurysms: early and late prognosis with surgical treatment. A personal series, 1958-1980

An account is given of a personal prospective series of 815 patients with the syndrome of spontaneous subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) due to ruptured cerebral aneurysm. It concerns all aneurysm patients at risk, both surgical and nonsurgical cases, referred to the author during two main periods: 606 patients were treated during the earlier period of 15 years, and 209 in the subsequent 7 years. The early mortality rate was determined at 3 months, and all survivors in the first period were followed for a mean of 9 years. Only operation survivors were observed during the second period, for 3 years on average. Patients alive at 3 months were studied in detail with respect to disabilities, work capacity, and later mortality. Of the 815 patients, 613, or 75%, were operated on. Comment is made on the influence of certain factors on early mortality. These include age, hypertension, condition of the patient at admission, and number of hemorrhages. From the results of this series, it is suggested that the preferable time to operate is between the 2nd and the 4th day after a single SAH. In this period, the early mortality rate is in the order of 10%. In this subgroup, a high proportion of the patients were in Botterell Grades 1 and 2, with only a few being in Grade 3. Also evident from the results was the protective value of operation against further aneurysm rupture in the 501 patients surviving at 3 months. However, the propensity of a second aneurysm to rupture in patients with multiple aneurysms has resulted recently in a change of operation policy. The early mortality in the whole series and later mortality in patients surviving 3 months is shown in tabular and histogram form. From these, it is clear the majority of later deaths are from causes unrelated to aneurysm rupture.