A few days ago, a colleague received a patient. The patient, 30 years old, suddenly felt a terrible headache while sleeping, and was rushed to the rescue room after seeking medical treatment.
Maybe you're wondering if a small headache is necessary to send to the rescue room?
Necessary! According to the CTA and DSA examination of the skull at that time, the patient's anterior communication artery microaneurysm, about 2 mm in diameter, the tumor wall is very thin.
According to common sense, this small aneurysm does not have a great risk of rupture, but because the patient has bad habits such as long-term smoking and drinking and staying up late, this exacerbates the risk.
This patient escaped the risk of rupture because he was sent to the hospital in time, but some people were not so lucky.
In December 2018, a 48-year-old female teacher in Harbin suddenly fell to the ground while eating. After being diagnosed with a ruptured intracranial aneurysm, doctors rescued him, but in the end it was because of excessive blood loss that did not save his life.
At present, plummeting temperatures, large temperature differences between morning and evening, fatigue and various mental causes are all high-risk factors for intracranial aneurysm rupture.
As a disease with extremely high mortality and disability rates, intracranial aneurysms have a mortality rate of 30-40% at the first rupture, 60-70% at the second rupture, and almost no chance of survival at the third rupture.
What is an intracranial aneurysm?
Intracranial aneurysms are not tumors in our traditional sense. It is a local bulge on the wall of our cerebral artery, just like blowing up a small balloon on the wall of a blood vessel, which will rupture at any time, and once it is ruptured, the harm to patients is unimaginable.
To put it in layman's terms, we can understand it as a process of normal decay and aging of the body, just like a long-term use of the road surface, there may be a variety of potholes, requiring regular maintenance.
Some intracranial aneurysms are large and irregular in shape, so the probability of rupture and bleeding is relatively high; some are small and regular in shape, plus there are tissues around them, so the probability of bleeding is not high.
But no matter what kind of intracranial aneurysm needs to be actively treated, because it usually has no symptoms, and once it ruptures, the mortality rate is extremely high, like a time bomb.
What are the specific symptoms?
The vast majority of these patients have obvious triggers, such as fatigue, alcohol, cough, or sudden agitation.
Although intracranial aneurysms do not have obvious symptoms in the early stages, they can still be judged by some subtle details, such as headaches and neck stiffness.
In particular, it is important to note that after a ruptured intracranial aneurysm, symptoms such as severe headaches, impaired consciousness, neck rigidity, and convulsions and vomiting may occur.
Once this symptom appears, be sure to let the patient lie flat, and immediately dial the 120 emergency number, do not panic, so as not to cause secondary injury.
How can intracranial aneurysms be prevented?
Intracranial aneurysm rupture does not occur for no reason, and generally has traces to follow, such as the following groups, that is, high-risk groups:
Intracranial aneurysms have ruptured; intracranial aneurysms have been larger in diameter and irregularly shaped; in younger patients; there has been a recent increase in intracranial aneurysms.
Therefore, this requires people over 40 years old to add cerebral angiography to the regular physical examination process. If you have a long smoking age and also have underlying medical conditions such as hypertension and diabetes, be sure to actively check to rule out intracranial aneurysms.
If you have been diagnosed with intracranial aneurysm, you must quit smoking and alcohol, usually guarantee rest time, mood swings should not be too large, pay attention to the intake of fresh fruits and vegetables.