Assessment of the Natural History of Anterior Communicating Aneurysms

Abstract

A CONSIDERABLE nmnber of patients with ruptured aneurysms arising from the junction of the anterior communicating and anterior cerebral arteries will survive and not bleed again. There is some variation between series but generally a 50 per cent mortal i ty has been found, a The object of this s tudy was to determine the factors that distinguish the patients that will rebleed from those that will not, so that operation entailing a considerable mortal i ty can be restricted to the former group. A method is presented by which the prognosis of an individual patient can be determined with some degree of accuracy. Although the subject mat ter here is aneurysms of the anterior communicating artery, this method of analysis is potentially applicable to other aneurysms, other diseases and other treatments.