LONGITUDINAL-STUDY OF CEREBRAL BLOOD PLOW FOLLOWING EARLY OR DELAYED SURGERY FOR RUPTURED INTRACRANIAL ANEURYSMS

Out of a series of 43 cases operated on for ruptured intracranial aneu rysms over a 12-month-period, 32 patients were followed up to 12 month s postoperatively with repeated evaluations of cerebral blood flow, us ing the Xenon(133) inhalation technique. No statistically significant differences in cerebral perfusion were detected between the subgroups of good-grade patients, who were submitted respectively to early, or d elayed surgery. Depression of flow in the affected hemisphere of poor- grade patients was principally related to the preoperative occurrence of an intracerebral haematoma. The overall results were not consistent with the hypothesis that early surgical intervention results in long- lasting effects on the cerebral circulation.