Intracranial Aneurysm – A Relentless Killer

  Although there are many types of aneurysms, a common aneurysm, as commonly explained, is a localized bulging of a blood vessel in the brain, like a small balloon blowing out of a blood vessel, which is a vascular disease, not a tumor.  The common aneurysm is usually congenital, but don’t misunderstand, the congenital nature mentioned here does not mean that the aneurysm is present after birth or inherited from parents to their children, but that there are certain structural defects in the development of the patient’s blood vessels, but the defects do not necessarily mean that the aneurysm will grow, so there is no need to worry too much.  The greatest risk of aneurysm is rupture and bleeding, and once ruptured, the risk of death or disability is extremely high, with about 1/3 of patients dying on the spot. Even if the aneurysm survives, the risk of re-rupture after rupture is so great that if the aneurysm is not treated, most patients will die within two years, making it a veritable cold-blooded killer.  Aneurysm rupture typically presents as a subarachnoid hemorrhage, a specific type of brain hemorrhage in which patients present with severe headaches and frequent vomiting. A dangerous tendency is that many patients, and even physicians, after a subarachnoid hemorrhage occurs, only administer medication for the hemorrhage without examining the cause of the hemorrhage, thus losing the opportunity to treat the aneurysm in a timely manner, and the patient often dies during hospitalization or after discharge from the hospital when rebleeding occurs.  Therefore, once a subarachnoid hemorrhage occurs for no apparent reason, it is important to have a cerebral angiogram done early, and in China this test is mostly done by neurosurgery, or brain surgery. If it is an aneurysm, it is important to target the aneurysm as early as possible, if possible.  In the past, aneurysm treatment usually involved opening the cranial cavity and clamping the aneurysm, but the surgery was relatively traumatic, and the technique of embolizing the aneurysm with a special spring coil, also called interventional treatment, developed in the late 1990s, has matured with minimal trauma and satisfactory results. Due to the large population in China, the number of cases of embolization of aneurysms in our department, for example, has reached about 300 cases per year, which is an amazing number in the international arena, so the level of interventional treatment of aneurysms in China is relatively high.  Finally, two points are emphasized: 1. Once a cerebral hemorrhage occurs, especially a subarachnoid hemorrhage, the cause of the hemorrhage must be found, rather than just treating the hemorrhage, which treats the symptoms but not the root cause.  2.Aneurysm treatment should be followed up on time as instructed by the doctor.