Hydrocephalus after Spontaneous Subarachnoidal Haemorrhage

Abstract

In the period 1980–1985 221 patients presenting with subarachnoid haemorrhage were operated on at the Department of Neurosurgery of the University of Innsbruck. 26 patients (11.7%) of them required a ventriculo-atrial or ventriculo-peritoneal shunt. The greatest group were patients with an aneurysm of the anterior communicating artery (10 patients, 38.3%) (Table). In three cases (11.5%) the aneurysm was located at the internal carotid artery, in two cases (7.6%) at the bifurcation of the basilar artery, the middle cerebral artery or the anterior cerebral artery. In five cases (19.2%) no aneurysm could be detected. 53.7% of the patients were between 41 and 60 years of age, 61% had suffered on subarachnoid haemorrhage, 38% two. The clinical condition was graded according to the Botterell scale revised by Yasargil. 38.4% of the patients were in grade Ha and 36.7% in grade IIIb The time intervall between subarachnoid haemorrhage and development of the hydrocephalus varied between 10 and 200 days. In the majority of the patient the hydrocephalus became appearent between the 20th and 39th day.