Traumatic aneurysms of the cerebral vessels

1972 ◽  
Vol 36 (5) ◽  
pp. 531-536 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Acosta ◽  
Phillip E. Williams ◽  
Kemp Clark

✓ Four cases of traumatic intracranial aneurysms are presented and the pathology and pathophysiology discussed. Two were successfully treated by direct surgical attack. The diagnosis of traumatic aneurysm should be suspected when a patient has an episode of intracranial hemorrhage after a head injury. The outcome of bleeding episodes is fatal in a significant number of cases. Surgery to obliterate the aneurysm is the treatment of choice.

2003 ◽  
Vol 99 (4) ◽  
pp. 661-665 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sergey Spektor ◽  
Samuel Agus ◽  
Vladimir Merkin ◽  
Shlomo Constantini

Object. The goal of this paper was to investigate a possible relationship between the consumption of low-dose aspirin (LDA) and traumatic intracranial hemorrhage in an attempt to determine whether older patients receiving prophylactic LDA require special treatment following an incidence of mild-to-moderate head trauma. Methods. Two hundred thirty-one patients older than 60 years of age, who arrived at the emergency department with a mild or moderate head injury (Glasgow Coma Scale [GCS] Scores 13–15 and 9–12, respectively), were included in the study. One hundred ten patients were receiving prophylactic LDA (100 mg/day) and these formed the aspirin-treated group. One hundred twenty-one patients were receiving no aspirin, and these formed the control group. There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups with respect to age, sex, mechanism of trauma, or GCS score on arrival at the emergency department. Most of the patients sustained the head injury from falls (88.2% of patients in the aspirin-treated group and 85.1% of patients in the control group), and had external signs of head trauma such as bruising or scalp laceration (80.9% of patients in the aspirin-treated group and 86.8% of patients in the control group). All patients underwent similar neurological examinations and computerized tomography (CT) scanning of the head. The CT scans revealed evidence of traumatic intracranial hemorrhage in 27 (24.5%) patients in the aspirin-treated group and in 31 patients (25.6%) in the control group. Surgical intervention was required for five patients in each group (4.5% of patients in the aspirin-treated group and 4.1% of patients in the control group). A surprising number of the patients who arrived with GCS Score 15 were found to have traumatic intracranial hemorrhage, as revealed by CT scanning (11.5% of patients in the aspirin-treated group and 16.5% of patients in the control group). Surgery, however, was not necessary for any of these patients. Conclusions. There was no statistically significant difference in the frequency or types of traumatic intracranial hemorrhage between patients who had received aspirin prophylaxis and those who had not. The authors conclude that LDA does not increase surgically relevant parenchymal or meningeal bleeding following moderate and minor head injury in patients older than 60 years of age.


1988 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
pp. 142-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard K. Simpson ◽  
Richard L. Harper ◽  
R. Nick Bryan

✓ A patient with a giant traumatic aneurysm of the right internal carotid artery presented with recurrent massive epistaxis 30 years after a head injury. During an episode of acute hemorrhage, this patient was effectively treated with occlusion of the internal carotid artery circulation by a detachable inflatable balloon.


2004 ◽  
Vol 101 (5) ◽  
pp. 757-761 ◽  
Author(s):  
Behzad Eftekhar ◽  
Mohammad Ghodsi ◽  
Farideh Nejat ◽  
Ebrahim Ketabchi ◽  
Babak Esmaeeli

Object. The purpose of this study was to compare the efficacy of the prophylactic use of ceftriaxone for the prevention of meningitis in patients with acute traumatic pneumocephalus. Methods. In this prospective, single-institution, randomized clinical trial, 109 patients with mild head injury and traumatic pneumocephalus were randomly assigned to receive or not receive an antibiotic medication (ceftriaxone, 1 g given twice a day) until occurrence of meningitis or at least 5 days after trauma. The patients were followed up for 1 month posttrauma. The 109 patients were divided into two groups: 53 were assigned to the prophylactic antibiotics therapy group and 56 to the control group. The overall rate of meningitis was 20.1% and the rates of meningitis in the two groups were not significantly different. The results were the same when adjusted for the patient's Glasgow Coma Scale score, sex, and age, as well as for an intradural location of air, air volume, presence of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) rhinorrhea or CSF otorrhea, radiological sign of a skull base fracture, or intracranial hemorrhage. Conclusions. The results of this study do not substantiate the efficacy of ceftriaxone used in the prevention of meningitis in patients with traumatic pneumocephalus after mild head injury or in any specific subgroup of these patients. Cerebrospinal fluid rhinorrhea and intracranial hemorrhage may be considered primary risk factors for the development of meningitis in patients with posttraumatic pneumocephalus and, in the absence of these symptoms, intradural location of air and air volume greater than 10 ml may be considered secondary risk factors. Further studies in this area are warranted.


1993 ◽  
Vol 79 (3) ◽  
pp. 354-362 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald W. Marion ◽  
Walter D. Obrist ◽  
Patricia M. Earlier ◽  
Louis E. Penrod ◽  
Joseph M. Darby

✓ Animal research suggests that moderate therapeutic hypothermia may improve outcome after a severe head injury, but its efficacy has not been established in humans. The authors randomly assigned 40 consecutively treated patients with a severe closed head injury (Glasgow Coma Scale score 3 to 7) to either a hypothermia or a normothermia group. Using cooling blankets and cold saline gastric lavage, patients in the hypothermia group were cooled to 32° to 33°C (brain temperature) within a mean of 10 hours after injury, maintained at that temperature for 24 hours, and rewarmed to 37° to 38°C over 12 hours. Patients in the normothermia group were maintained at 37° to 38°C during this time. Deep-brain temperatures were monitored directly and used for all temperature determinations. Intracranial pressure (ICP), cerebral blood flow (CBF), and cerebral metabolic rate for oxygen (CMRO2) were measured serially for all patients. Hypothermia significantly reduced ICP (40%) and CBF (26%) during the cooling period, and neither parameter showed a significant rebound increase after patients were rewarmed. Compared to the normothermia group, the mean CMRO2 in the hypothermia group was lower during cooling and higher 5 days after injury. Three months after injury, 12 of the 20 patients in the hypothermia group had moderate, mild, or no disabilities; eight of the 20 patients in the normothermia group had improved to the same degree. Both groups had a similar incidence of systemic complications, including cardiac arrhythmias, coagulopathies, and pulmonary complications. It is concluded that therapeutic moderate hypothermia is safe and has sustained favorable effects on acute derangements of cerebral physiology and metabolism caused by severe closed head injury. The trend toward better outcome with hypothermia may indicate that its beneficial physiological and metabolic effects limit secondary brain injury.


1971 ◽  
Vol 34 (5) ◽  
pp. 706-708 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin L. Lazar ◽  
Clark C. Watts ◽  
Bassett Kilgore ◽  
Kemp Clark

✓ Angiography during the operative procedure is desirable, but is often difficult because of the problem of maintaining a needle or cannula in an artery for long periods of time. Cannulation of the superficial temporal artery avoids this technical problem. The artery is easily found, cannulation is simple, and obliteration of the artery is of no consequence. Cerebral angiography then provides a means for prompt evaluation of the surgical procedure at any time during the actual operation.


1994 ◽  
Vol 81 (6) ◽  
pp. 934-936 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alok Ranjan ◽  
Thomas Joseph

✓ This forty-five-year-old woman presented with a history suggestive of an intracranial hemorrhage. Clinical examination indicated mild right pyramidal signs and neck stiffness. Computerized tomography demonstrated contrast enhancement in the region of a left frontal intraparenchymal hematoma with an adjacent subdural hematoma. Angiography revealed the presence of a giant aneurysm on the left anterior ethmoidal artery. Surgical evacuation of the hematoma with excision of the aneurysm and coagulation of the feeding artery was achieved. Postoperative recovery was uneventful. Vascular lesions of the anterior ethmoidal artery and the rarity of a giant aneurysm at this site are discussed.


1984 ◽  
Vol 61 (6) ◽  
pp. 1009-1028 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lindsay Symon ◽  
Janos Vajda

✓ A series of 35 patients with 36 giant aneurysms is presented. Thirteen patients presented following subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) and 22 with evidence of a space-occupying lesion without recent SAH. The preferred technique of temporary trapping of the aneurysm, evacuation of the contained thrombus, and occlusion of the neck by a suitable clip is described. The danger of attempted ligation in atheromatous vessels is stressed. Intraoperatively, blood pressure was adjusted to keep the general brain circulation within autoregulatory limits. Direct occlusion of the aneurysm was possible in over 80% of the cases. The mortality rate was 8% in 36 operations. Six percent of patients had a poor result. Considerable improvement in visual loss was evident in six of seven patients in whom this was a presenting feature, and in four of seven with disturbed eye movements.


1971 ◽  
Vol 35 (5) ◽  
pp. 571-576 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aneel N. Patel ◽  
Alan E. Richardson

✓ An analysis of 3000 ruptured intracranial aneurysms revealed 58 cases in patients under the age of 19 years. There was a striking incidence of aneurysms of the carotid termination and anterior cerebral complex, accounting for 43 of 58 cases, and of these 20 involved the terminal portion of the carotid artery. Vasospasm occurred slightly less often than in adults and infarction was only seen in one postmortem examination. The surgical mortality in alert patients was 7% whereas in a comparable bedrest group it was 38%. This good tolerance to surgery was evident whether intracranial operation or carotid ligation was used, but the surgical method was not randomly allocated.


1993 ◽  
Vol 79 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary K. Steinberg ◽  
Charles G. Drake ◽  
Sydney J. Peerless

✓ Deliberate occlusion of the basilar or vertebral arteries was performed in 201 patients with intracranial aneurysms, where the aneurysmal neck could not be clipped directly. The aneurysms arose from the basilar apex in 83 cases, the basilar trunk in 46, the vertebrobasilar junction in 35, and the vertebral artery in 37; 87% of the aneurysms were classified as giant lesions (> 2.5 cm). There were 85 upper basilar occlusions, 41 lower basilar occlusions, 29 bilateral vertebral occlusions, and 48 unilateral vertebral artery occlusions. The clinical follow-up period varied from 1 to 23 years, with a mean of 9.5 years. Overall long-term results were excellent in 68% of the patients, good in 5%, and poor in 3%; 24% died. Clinical outcome varied according to aneurysm site; excellent or good results were achieved in 64% of the patients with basilar apex, 76% with basilar trunk, 74% with vertebrobasilar junction, and 87% with vertebral artery aneurysms. Clinical outcome also varied depending on preoperative grade: 86% of the patients with an excellent presenting grade achieved excellent results. The size of the posterior communicating arteries was a good predictor of tolerance to basilar artery occlusion (p < 0.05). Successful aneurysm thrombosis was achieved in 78% of the patients. The neurological status in 26 patients (13%) deteriorated due to vertebrobasilar ischemia occurring within the 1st postoperative week, and thrombosis or embolism was implicated much more frequently than hemodynamic insufficiency. Subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) in 14 patients, vasospasm in five patients, and surgical trauma in seven patients accounted for additional morbidity in the 1st month following operation; however, many of these patients ultimately made an excellent recovery. Late vertebrobasilar ischemic complications or neurological deterioration from persistent mass effect occurred in 4% of patients with successful aneurysm thrombosis 6 weeks to 18 months after arterial ligation. Among the 43 patients with incompletely thrombosed aneurysms, 67% developed early or late neurological deterioration from SAH, progressive brain-stem compression, or brain-stem stroke, with 86% of the complications proving fatal.


1980 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 300-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toshisuke Sakaki ◽  
Kazuhiko Kinugawa ◽  
Tatsuo Tanigake ◽  
Seiji Miyamoto ◽  
Kikuo Kyoi ◽  
...  

✓ Embolism from an aneurysm is one of the mechanisms involved in the pathogenesis of ischemic symptoms associated with intracranial aneurysms. Four cases are reported in which aneurysms of the internal carotid arteries and middle cerebral arteries were the source of emboli resulting in cerebral infarction. In the treatment of these aneurysms, it is best to clip the neck of the aneurysm with great care to avoid embolism due to extrusion of clot into the distal artery.


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