Anyone know about treatment for brain aneurysms? (1 Viewer)

[Michael*K]

Just found out that my aunt is hospitalized at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore with a brain aneurysm. Apparently she's conscious, lucid and talking in the ICU, but with no phones, I'm unable to talk to her. With no family within 700 miles of there, I'm flying out Monday a.m. to spend time at the hospital. The nurse said the doctors believe she'll need surgery to repair the defect. Anyone know what this entails and what recovery from it involves?

 

[Tom Meyer]

google can find pretty much anything ....

http://cpmcnet.columbia.edu/dept/cer...ysm.html#Link5

Hope your aunt is OK. I'd bet that the fact they caught it before it burst makes it about a 1000% better situation.

 

[andrew markworthy]

Michael, I hope that your aunt is okay. The fact that she's lucid and talking are good signs.

To answer your question, there are lots of potential methods. It depends not only on the type of vascular damage but the location as well. However, surgery of this kind has come on leaps and bounds in the past few years, and some of it is practically routine.

 

[Michael*K]

Thanks, I'm back and I think she'll be OK, albeit with a slow recovery period. I'm at the office so I don't have time to expound on all the details right now, but let me just say that Johns Hopkins Hospital's reputation as the top medical center in the U.S. couldn't be more richly deserved. Incredible facility and personnel.

 

[Josh Lowe]

The mother of a friend of mine had an aneurysm. Not to be blunt, but it's a -tough- road. Depending on the nature and the severity of her aneurysm, things may really change. My friend's mom underwent some marked personality changes after her aneurysm, like complete shifts in behavior. She also has problems with her memory. I believe she still has a shunt, which is required to drain excess fluid to keep pressure off of the brain. It is a survivable and recoverable illness, but it's tough.