HEMORRHAGE INTO GLIOMAS

Abstract

In Osler's textbook of medicine1appears the following statement: Gliomas (of the brain): They are usually very vascular and the vessels are very liable to degeneration with resulting hemorrhage, thrombosis and edema. This often accounts for acute features appearing suddenly. Most students who have been graduated from medical colleges in recent years have read this statement and accepted it. It has become a widespread belief that gross hemorrhage into gliomas is common. Whenever there is a sudden onset or an acute exacerbation of symptoms in a case of tumor of the brain the possibility of hemorrhage comes first to the minds of many, and occasionally contraindications to operation are based on the theory that decompression is likely to permit such hemorrhage to assume fatal proportions. To one whose ideas on this matter were no exception to the general rule, it was of considerable interest to encounter in the clinic