title: Do we evaluate outcome appropriately?
abstract: We discuss two different ways of measuring outcome in a sample of 20 patients who had intracranial aneurysm surgery. Patients were evaluated at discharge using the Karnofsky Scale and the Glasgow Outcome Scale. Six months after discharge we conducted a neuropsychiatric evaluation including cognitive, behavioral, and mood status assessment. Although 13 of our patients had a "good recovery', 18 had some neuropsychiatric impairment. We did not find statistical relationships between the discharge evaluation and the neuropsychiatric assessment at follow-up. We discuss the need for developing new outcome measures to pick-up neuropsychiatric deficits, beyond the traditional neurologic semiology.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, University of Illinois at Chicago.
authors.forename: X
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Beristain
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gaviria
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dujovny
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Stark
authors.forename: J I
authors.initials: JI
authors.lastname: Ausman
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D002532:Intracranial Aneurysm / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology / Q000601:surgery*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011379:Prognosis; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales