From Medicineworld.org: Cerebral aneurysms
What is an aneurysm?
In which blood vessels are the aneurysm located?
Aneursyms usually arise in the arteries (which carry pure blood) because of the high-pressure and stress to which these vessels are subjected. Saccular aneurysms or berry aneurysms (the names are due to the shape of the aneurysm) are usually located on major cerebral blood vessels at the apex of the branching point where there is more stress on the blood vessel due to flowing blood. Fusiform aneurysms are more common in the vertebrobasilar system.
Saccular aneurysms are located in carotid system 85-95% of the patients. Anterior communicating artery aneurysm is the most common. Others are posterior communicating and middle cerebral artery aneurysms.5-15 % of the patient has vertebro basilar aneurysm. In 20-30% of the patients, the aneurysms are multiple (that is patients having more than one aneurysm).
What are the symptoms of cerebral aneurysms?
When the aneurysm is not ruptured, it produces no symptoms. Many aneurysms are discovered incidentally, when doing MRI scan for some other reasons. Rupture of the aneurysm causes various type of hemorrhage in the brain. They are
The patient may have the following symptoms:
How do you diagnose cerebral aneurysm?
The best treatment option depends on the condition of the patient, the location of the aneurysms and the ability of the neurosurgeon. When patient comes with an unruptured aneurysm, surgical clipping of the aneurysms is the best treatment available. Endovascular treatment with guglielmi detachable coils is one of the treatment available where the coils are placed into the aneurysm sac and blocking it. Detachable balloons are also used in endovascular treatment. When the patient comes with ruptured aneurysm in a comatose stage, the prognosis is bad.
Diagnosis is mainly done be a procedure called 4 vessel cerebral angiography. Here contrast agent (dye) is injected in to the patient's blood vessel (artery) and images are taken. Now a days MR angiography, CT angiograghy, Digital substraction angiography are available for the diagnosis of cerebral aneurysm.
What are the treatment options available for treating cerebral aneurysm?
Did you know?
The exact mechanism for the development of aneurysm is still controversial. In contrast to the blood vessels present in the other parts of our body, the blood vessels in our brain contains less elastic in the tunica media and adventitia and the media has less muscle(these are the layers of tissue present in the wall of blood vessels).
Medicineworld.org: Cerebral aneurysms
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