Subarachnoid Hemorrhage

Smoking and neurosurgical outcomes

The effects of long-term cigarette smoking on morbidity and mortality have long been known. In a more immediate sense, smoking in the days and weeks before surgery can lead to morbidity and complications for many surgical ...

Jun 18, 2013
popularity not rated yet | comments 0

A subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH,  /ˌsʌbəˈræknɔɪd ˈhɛmᵊrɪdʒ/), or subarachnoid haemorrhage in British English, is bleeding into the subarachnoid space—the area between the arachnoid membrane and the pia mater surrounding the brain. This may occur spontaneously, usually from a ruptured cerebral aneurysm, or may result from head injury.

Symptoms of SAH include a severe headache with a rapid onset ("thunderclap headache"), vomiting, confusion or a lowered level of consciousness, and sometimes seizures. The diagnosis is generally confirmed with a CT scan of the head, or occasionally by lumbar puncture. Treatment is by prompt neurosurgery or radiologically guided interventions with medications and other treatments to help prevent recurrence of the bleeding and complications. Surgery for aneurysms was introduced in the 1930s, but since the 1990s many aneurysms are treated by a less invasive procedure called "coiling", which is carried out by instrumentation through large blood vessels.

SAH is a form of stroke and comprises 1–7% of all strokes. It is a medical emergency and can lead to death or severe disability—even when recognized and treated at an early stage. Up to half of all cases of SAH are fatal and 10–15% of casualties die before reaching a hospital, and those who survive often have neurological or cognitive impairment.

This text uses material from Wikipedia licensed under CC BY-SA

Latest Spotlight News

US doctors' group labels obesity a disease

(HealthDay)—In an effort to focus greater attention on the weight-gain epidemic plaguing the United States, the American Medical Association has now classified obesity as a disease.

Efficient signal transmission at sensory system synapses

(Medical Xpress)—Neurophysiologist like to think of neurons as communicating with spikes. If that were the whole story, it might be possible to imagine spike codes which could then be used to estimate the ...

Sexually transmitted HPV declines in US teens

The number of US girls with the sexually transmitted disease HPV has dropped by about half even though relatively few youths are getting the vaccine, research showed on Wednesday.

Fate of the heart: Researchers track cellular events leading to cardiac regeneration

In a study published in the June 19 online edition of the journal Nature, a scientific team led by researchers from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine visually monitored the dynami ...

Validating maps of the brain's resting state

Kick back and shut your eyes. Now stop thinking. You have just put your brain into what neuroscientists call its resting state. What the brain is doing when an individual is not focused on the outside world ...

Scientists create way to see structures that store memories in living brain

Oscar Wilde called memory "the diary that we all carry about with us." Now a team of scientists has developed a way to see where and how that diary is written.

Genetics of cervical cancer raise concern about antiviral therapy in some cases

A new understanding of the genetic process that can lead to cervical cancer may help improve diagnosis of potentially dangerous lesions for some women, and also raises a warning flag about the use of anti-viral therapies ...

A shot in the arm for old antibiotics: Silver boosts antibiotics

Slipping bacteria some silver could give old antibiotics new life, scientists at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University reported June 19 in Science Translational Me ...

A new model—and possible treatment—for staph bone infections

Osteomyelitis – a debilitating bone infection most frequently caused by Staphylococcus aureus ("staph") bacteria – is particularly challenging to treat.

Researchers develop powerful new technique to study protein function

In the cover story for the journal Genetics this month, neurobiologist Dan Chase and colleagues at the University of Massachusetts Amherst describe a new experimental technique they developed that will allow scientists to stu ...