title: Cerebromeningeal hemorrhage. Analysis of autopsies performed over a 10-year period.
abstract: A study was conducted on the medical records of 353 patients who died of a subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) and who were submitted to autopsy over the last 10 years. SAH was associated with arterial hypertension in 180 (51%) cases, with ruptured aneurysms in 102 (28.9%), and with other pathologies in 71 (20.1%). The patients with hemorrhage associated with arterial hypertension were mostly males, and those with hemorrhage due to aneurysms were mostly females. Of the patients with aneurysms, 36 (35.3%) had aneurysms in the anterior communicating artery, 30 (29.4%) in the internal carotid artery, and 23 (22.6%) in the middle cerebral artery. Among the patients with aneurysms who suffered rebleeding and vasospasm, 59.1% and 61.5%, respectively, were classified as grade I and II upon admission, and all evolved toward grade IV after these complications. Vasospasm predominated from the 3rd to the 10th day after hemorrhage, and rebleeding from the 9 to 16th day and both were most frequent among patients with aneurysms of the anterior communicant artery. Sixty eight percent of the patients with aneurysms died during the first 9 days after hemorrhage. Because of our conduct was to operate systematically late, a considerable number of patients lost the opportunity to be treated surgically with possible favorable evolution due to vasospasm or rebleeding.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Orthopedics and Traumatology: Hospital das Clinicas, Ribeirão Preto Medical School, University of São Paulo, Brasil.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Martelli
authors.forename: B O
authors.initials: BO
authors.lastname: Colli
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Assirati Júnior
authors.forename: H R
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Machado
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000150:complications*; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D002532:Intracranial Aneurysm / Q000150:complications*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012422:Rupture, Spontaneous; D013345:Subarachnoid Hemorrhage / Q000209:etiology* / Q000473:pathology