Ohio State Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones died this week in Cleveland from a brain aneurtsm that ruptured while she was driving. She was taken to the Cleveland Clinic and was unable to recover. She was only 58 years old.
Brain aneurysms are little balloon type 'pockets' that are found in the arteries. Many are in the brain but can also be found around the heart or in the legs or other areas of the body.
It is thought that about 4% of people have aneurysms (based on autopsy statistics) which is pretty staggering. Most people don't even know they have an aneurysm and live with it. Unless it ruptures, they can live to be 100 and die of other causes. Aneurysms themselves are not fatal but if they rupture, they can be - and death can be fast. About 10% of people who have an aneurysm will experience a rupture.
WebMD has a question and answer session with Howard Kirshner, MD, professor and chairman of neurology at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville. I thought I'd put it here, to educate us a little more about this mysterious but scary condition -
"What is a brain aneurysm?
"An [unruptured] aneurysm looks kind of like a balloon, an out-pouching of an artery," Kirshner says. "It almost always occurs at a point where the artery branches off."
While Tubbs Jones had a cerebral, or brain aneurysm; aneurysms can also occur in the aorta (the major artery from the heart), the leg, and other areas. Aneurysms are related to weaknesses in the blood vessel wall.
How common is a brain aneurysm?
''We think that many people have them -- up to 4% have it at autopsy," Kirshner says, citing research, but many show no symptoms. According to Kirshner, about 5% of people will develop a brain aneurysm during their lifetime, but only about 10% of them will experience a rupture.
As a crude estimate, he says, perhaps 25,000 to 50,000 people a year in the U.S. have a brain hemorrhage caused by a ruptured aneurysm. Family history plays a role, experts believe. Family members of a patient with a brain aneurysm have an increased risk of having one. Yet only a small percentage of these are related to hereditary syndromes associated with aneurysms.
Women are more likely than men to have an aneurysm, and African-Americans have more risk of hemorrhage from an aneurysm than do whites.
What are the symptoms that an aneurysm has ruptured?
Aneurysms often go undetected because they can have no symptoms until they rupture and bleed. When that happens, it can cause a sudden severe headache and sometimes nothing more than that, Kirshner says. "But it is usually not like any other headache you've had. It is very sudden or severe, the worst headache of your life." Other symptoms include severe neck pain, dizziness, nausea, and sensitivity to light.
One-third to nearly half of patients have minor hemorrhages or "warning leaks" that later lead to a severe devastating brain hemorrhage days later.
Sometimes, when an aneurysm ruptures, it can go unnoticed, with the person passing off the headache. But once it ruptures, Kirshner says, it is more likely to re-bleed.
Is there a typical age bracket for aneurysms to rupture?
"They are most common in middle age -- the 40s and 50s are the peak ages," he says. But they can happen at any age. "I've seen them in teenagers. They do occasionally occur in elderly people."
What can someone do to reduce the risk of an aneurysm growing and rupturing?
"Not smoking and treating hypertension prevent aneurysms from growing and rupturing," Kirshner says.
In general, what is the outlook for someone whose brain aneurysm bursts?
The prognosis, Kirshner says, "is very uncertain." A ruptured aneurysm can cause sudden death, he says. In general, "if you are in bad shape right in the beginning, the odds of recovery are much lower." The overall death rate once the aneurysm ruptures is about 40%, he says.
What might be done when the rupture is discovered?
Getting treatment as soon as possible is critical, he says. If it's possible to do surgery, one option is to go in surgically and put a clip across the aneurysm to stop bleeding. "An even more common surgery is to go through the artery and deploy a coil [into the aneurysm, using a tiny catheter] and the coil causes the aneurysm to shut off." The coil causes a clot to form around the sac, sealing off the aneurysm defect."
http://www.webmd.com/brain/news/20080821/aneurysms-common-sometimes-dead...
If anyone has anything to add or had their own experience, I'd love to hear it!
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Add a Comment96 Comments
My mother in law has just been diagnosed with a brain aneurysm. We have been told she will see a neuro surgeon within the next two weeks. She has been havung constant severe headaches for weeks. The surgeon doesn't feel the headaches are due to the aneurysm. Has anyone else experienced headaches and confusion and nausea before a rupture.
August 17, 2016 - 7:16amThis Comment
Exactly one month ago I had my brain aneurysm. I'm a 48 year old male. Suffice to say, I am happy to be alive, and so happy for everyone's thoughts. Timing is critical is recognizing what is happening - as I believed this played a huge part in my recovery. This morning I went for a slow 5K jog and am getting stronger each day.
On what happened specifically, I had several neurological disorders which the amazing neurosurgery team at Brigham & Women's Hospital (BWH) in Boston took care of (thank you Dr. Aziz-Sultan and team!). They saved my life, in combination with my recognition of what happened, my first aid training that kept me calm, where it happened (so thankful to those in my yoga sculpt class), my lifestyle, the first responders that got me to BWH, and the neurosurgical intensive care unit (ICU) (where I was holed up at for 13 days)!
Had a Brain Aneurysm rupture (water on brain) and subsequently fixed (with a coil). It was recognized that the aneurysm was caused by a genetic AVM (Arteriovenous Malformation) - which they thankfully embolized and later removed. All good - after 4 brain surgeries.
If interested in the gritty details - see attached videos below. I believe my lifestyle (doing lots of crazy yoga stuff and a lot of stress across my various jobs) brought this gift to me early. But I am glad it happened while still young, strong, and able to recover and get on strongly with life. Like this article discusses - so many people have aneurysms and it is so hard to diagnosis. I just felt pressure at the back of my skull - pressure that I had never felt before. Passed out for maybe 5 seconds, and about 5 minutes later nausea. I knew something bad was going on, and recognized that I had to get to the hospital asap.
vids:
http://www.brighamandwomens.org/Departments_and_Services/neurosurgery/OurServices/Cerebrovascular/brain-aneurysm-surgery.aspx
http://www.brighamandwomens.org/Departments_and_Services/neurosurgery/OurServices/Cerebrovascular/arteriovenous-malformations.aspx
July 3, 2016 - 2:27pmThis Comment
My husband had this happen at 48 too and he died. All the hospital would say after I got him there via ambulance was that he would die in a few hours and there was nothing at all they could do to save him. Is New Zealand useless?
July 8, 2016 - 1:35amThis Comment
My mother's father had a leg aneurysm and died maybe 55 my mother had a brain aneurysm at 64 and died so I'm kind of worried about what my chances are here I feel like I don't have any way of knowing if that's something that's coming for me or do I?
April 17, 2016 - 7:37amThis Comment
You can ask you doctor for an mra to see if you have one. MRA not MRI. An mra shows vessels MRI shows tissue. A Ct scan WILL NOTtell you if you have an aneurysm. Based on your family history you should have one and your doc should be happy to have you tested.
June 24, 2017 - 8:07amThis Comment
I'm 34 years old and my husband just recently passed away two weeks before Christmas from an ruptured aneurysm. He didn't even know he had it. When I met my husband 9 years ago he told me he had had an aneurysm at 19 but the bleeding had stopped on it's own. He walked away with nothing physically wrong with him. The doctors at that time never found anything and suspected a ruptured aneurysm. They told my husband he was lucky to be alive and the chances of him having another one in life were slim to none. So when we found out this past December that he had had another one and wasn't going to make it was a huge shock. The doctors said it was one of the largest aneurysms they had seen and surgery was not an option because the bleeding was so severe. I didn't know much about aneurysms before but from reading this article, I should have seen the warning signs. My husband was a smoker and his mother is currently living with three. I guess you could say my husband had a "warning leak" at age 19 and didn't make it when it happened again. I have two small children and plan to start getting them checked as soon as I can. It is such a scary thing.
February 14, 2016 - 7:47amThis Comment
I'm 38. One month ago I came down with the worst headache of my life. 10 days later I was diagnosed with an aneurism. 2.5cm X 1.7 x 1.7. It had been growing since I was 7, when I got a small skull fracture. 3 weeks ago it was stented. I still have pain, how long did it take for others whom had this procedure to heal please?
February 2, 2016 - 9:26pmThis Comment
How did you know it had been growing since you had the head injury at 7 please? My husband had a sudden death at 48.
May 20, 2016 - 6:35pmThis Comment
The neurologist that done the angiogram told me it was very old and been growing since I was a child. I talked to my mother about it, when I was 7 I was in an accident that gave me concussion and fractured my skull, so I assume that's when it started
June 24, 2017 - 6:15pmThis Comment
My mother had a brain aneurysm rupture 44 months ago, and she survived with no deficits. After repeated follow-ups, she was told that there was no need for such concern years later. Now, as I sit with her again in the ICU after she suffered a second rupture this past Monday, my only words of advice are this: no one knows your body better than you. Trust your instincts. If something is FEELS wrong, something IS wrong. Don't waste time and see a physician immediately!!!
December 18, 2015 - 6:47pmThis Comment