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(Stroke. 2007;38:1724.)
© 2007 American Heart Association, Inc.

Editorials

Timing of Neuropsychological Outcome Measures in Patients With Subarachnoid Hemorrhage

Jose I. Suarez, MD

From the Department of Neurology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Tex.

Correspondence to Jose I. Suarez, MD, Department of Neurology, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, NB 302, Houston, TX 77030. E-mail jisuarez@bcm.tmc.edu

Key Words: cerebral aneurysm • neuropsychology • outcome • stroke • subarachnoid hemorrhage

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

See related article, pages 1864–1872.

Aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) accounts for up to 5% of all strokes and changes the lives of 30 000 people in the United States each year.¹ The majority of patients experiencing SAH are young (mean age of presentation 55 years) and their average case fatality is 51%.^2,3 About half of survivors are left with significant long-term cognitive dysfunction. Such cognitive impairment can also be seen in patients defined as having good neurological recovery by the Glasgow Outcome Scale. Despite these well-known facts, the available literature in the English language has important limitations. Such limitations include relatively small sample sizes, lack of follow-up beyond a 3-month period in many reports, and variations of timing of neurosychological assessments within and between studies.

To bridge these gaps, Samra et al present an interesting report on the recovery of cognitive function after surgery for SAH in this issue of Stroke.⁴ The Cognitive Function After Aneurysm Surgery Trial (CFAAST) was a longitudinal study, designed to provide long-term follow-up for patients enrolled in the Intraoperative Hypothermia for Aneurysm Surgery Trial (IHAST). The latter was a prospective randomized controlled trial investigating the effect of mild intraoperative hypothermia on neurological outcome 3 months after treatment in patients with SAH requiring craniotomy and aneurysmal clipping.⁵ CFAAST evaluated patients considered as having good neurological outcome defined as a Glasgow Outcome Scale of 1 to 2. The 3 main objectives of the study included the determination of the frequency and severity of cognitive dysfunction, . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Related Article:

Recovery of Cognitive Function After Surgery for Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage

Satwant K. Samra, Bruno Giordani, Angela F. Caveney, William R. Clarke, Phillip A. Scott, Steven Anderson, Byron G. Thompson, Michael M. Todd for the CFAAST Investigators
Stroke 2007 38: 1864-1872. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]