Brain Aneurysms: The Silent Hunter

Brain Aneurysms: The Silent Hunter

Holly Blankenship

Radford University

Brain aneurysms are typically known as a bulging, weak area in the wall of an artery that supplies blood to the brain. Normally these go untreated and/ or unnoticed because the symptoms are extremely difficult to identify. These symptoms would include headaches, blurred vision, eye pain, neck pain, ringing in the ears, and difficulty speaking. When the aneurysm ruptures these symptoms are more noticeable and sudden causing the blood to make its way into the space around the brain.

Brain arterial aneurysms are common forms of arterial deformation occurring in about 5% of the adult population. Mostly this develops in someone’s late 40’s. When a person has an aneurysm, there is a 15 to 20 percent chance they will end up having more to come. People with this normally have it transmitted through birth on rare occasions, infections, brain trauma from a possible accident, and drugs such as amphetamines and cocaine which can damage the brains blood vessels.

Treatment for such a problem to prevent any further damage to happen would be surgical clipping and/ or Endovascular coiling. Surgical clipping closes the aneurysm off by placing a metal clip on the neck of the aneurysm after removing a section of your skull for better access, stopping the blood flow to get to the brain. Endovascular coiling is a procedure where a surgeon will insert a catheter into ones’ artery, more than likely the groin, then gets strung through the body to the aneurysm. A platinum wire, typically soft and of malleable consistency is then strung through the catheter and into the aneurysm, coiling up inside of it, causing the blood flow to be disrupted and effectively sealing off the aneurysm from the rest of the artery. Though there are many factors that play into the most effective way to treat the aneurysm, especially an individual’s physiological conditions, as well as the extent of that individual’s condition.

In reference to the pathological features of brain aneurysm development and symptoms, typical signs of an aneurysm are an increase in frequency of headaches, feelings of nausea, as well as multiple forms of eye impairment. Common long-term symptoms of an aneurysm are mostly identifiable physically, such as changes in mental state, high blood pressure, as well as multiple cranial nerve deficits. In most cases once an aneurysm ruptures and bleeds into the brain, the mortality rate is 30 to 40 percent. There may be multiple ruptures of the same aneurysm over time, if the aneurysm is not treated quickly.