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African Journal of Neurological Sciences
Pan African Association of Neurological Sciences
ISSN: 1015-8618
Vol. 17, Num. 1, 1998
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The African Journal of Neurological Sciences Vol 14
No
The African Journal of Neurological Sciences Vol 17 No.1,
1998
Surgery of intracranial aneurisms in East Africa
RUBERTI R.F.
African Neurological Disease Research Foundation (A.N.D.R.E.F) -
Nairobi - Kenya
Code Number: NS98004
SUMMARY
This is a prospective study of 146 black African patients
with intracranial aneurisms seen by the Author in 30 years of
practice in Kenya. Out of 146 patients, 131 have been surgically
treated mainly (90%) by clipping the aneurismal neck. The majority
of the patients were Kenyans but others were from Eastern African
Region. An analysis of the intracranial aneurismatic disease is
carried out, with particular reference to the neuroepidemiology of
this condition as seen in the African patients and to the
pathological, diagnostic and prognostic aspects as related to the
management.
RESUME
146 patients Africains noirs presentant un aneurisme
intracranien, qui ont ete vus par l'Auteur en 30 ans de pratique
medicale au Kenya, font l'objet d'une etude prospective. 131 de ces
146 patients ont ete traites chirurgicalement, la plupart (90%) par
clippage au collet de l'aneurisme. La majorite de ces patients
etaient Kenyans, les autres originaires de l'Afrique de l'Est. Une
analyse de la maladie aneurysmale intracranienne est entreprise a
partir, en particulier, des donnees qui ressortent de la
neuroepidemiologie de cette maladie chez les patients Africains et
des aspects pathologiques, diagnostiques et pronostiques, en
relation au traitement chirurgical.
KEY WORDS - Aneurisms - Intracranial East Africa
A series of 146 black African patients with intracranial
aneurisms has been seen by the Author in Nairobi, Kenya, in the
course of 30 years. The majority of patients were Kenyans but
others were coming from the East African region.
The incidence of intracranial aneurysms (I.A.) in East Africa is
unknown as unknown is the incident cerebro-vascular disease and
cardio-vascular diseases. We are perhaps better informed about the
relative incidence or cerebro-vascular disease and intracranial
aneurisms in the African when compared with the other neurological
pathology observed in the same circumstance by the same Author. In
the present series cerebro-vascular diseases represent 6-8% of the
approximately 10,000 African patients seen by the Author in 30
years time, and this incidence is similar to other large overseas
series. The vascular malformation are approximately a quarter of
the cerebro-vascular diseases and of them the 75% are intracranial
aneurisms and 25% arterio-venous malformations.
There is a lower incidence of I.A. when compared with the
arterio-venous malformations in the African: the I.A. versus AVM
stands at 3:1 in the African, whilst in the western series it is
10; 1. This can be partly explained with the fact that the AVM
manifests clinically early in life whilst the I.A. are clinically
more frequent at the age between 40 and 60 years, that the African
have a shorter span of life, that the haemorrhages due to the AVM
are less catastrophic and gives more often focal signs that the
subarachnoidal hemorrhages due to an aneurism that can be confused,
at the general practitioner level, with a meningitis, cerebral
malaria and other diseases.
The age incidence for the intracranial aneurisms in this series
was as follows:
TABLE I AGE
INCIDENCE-INTRACRANIAL-ANEURISMS-AFRICAN
YEARS OF AGE |
NO.OF CASES |
PERCENTAGE |
0-10 |
1 |
0.8 |
11-20 |
5 |
3.5 |
21-30 |
23 |
15.7 |
31-40 |
39 |
26.7 |
41-50 |
42 |
28.7 |
51-60 |
33 |
22.6 |
Over 60 |
3 |
2.0 |
Total |
146 |
100.0 |
Although intracranial aneurisms are encountered at all ages,
they reach the peak between 40 and 60 years in all series; in this
series it has to be noted that almost 50 per cent (46.5%) of cases
are in the first four decades of life and this could be explained
with the tact that 50 percent of the population in East Africa is
below the age of 15 years.
The sex incidence was 89 men and 57 women with a ratio of 1.56
to 1. Unruptured aneurisms are more common in women whilst with
regards to ruptured aneurysms, under the age of 40 years men
preponderate, over the age of 50 women proponderated to a steadily
increasing degree. Aneurysms of the internal carotid artery are
more common in women, whereas those arising from the
anterior-cerebral and anterior communicating artery are more
frequent in men.
In the first two decades of life there were no aneurysms of the
anterior cerebral and anterior communicating arteries. The
incidence of aneurysm of the internal carotid artery are the same
in the age between 20 and 40 years, the ones of the ACA and A. Com.
A. are twice as frequent in the age between 40 to 60 than between
20-40.
The site of the aneurisms was as following.
TABLE 2 LOCATION INTRACRANIAL
ANEURISMS-AFRICAN
LOCATION |
NO.OF CASES |
PERCENTAGE |
INT CAROTID ARTERY |
63 |
43. 1 |
BIFURCATION I.C.A. |
3 |
2. 1 |
MIDDLE CEREBRAL ARTERY |
24 |
16.5 |
ANTERIOR CEREBRAL ARTERY |
5 |
3.4 |
ANT. COMM. ARTERY |
45 |
30.8 |
VERTEBRO-BASIL. SYST |
4 |
2.7 |
INTRACAV. CAROTID |
2 |
1.4 |
Total |
146 |
100.0 |
As in other larger series the aneurisms of the internal carotid
artery are the most frequent (45%) followed by the aneurisms of the
anterior cerebral-anterior communicating artery (34%) and by the
aneurisms of the middle cerebral artery (16.5%).
The number of intracranial bleedings for each aneurisms was as
shown in table 3.
TABLE 3 NUMBER OF INTRACRANIAL BLEEDINGS FOR EACH
ANEURISM
NUMBER OF BLEEDINGS |
NO. OF CASES |
PERCENI' |
NO BLEEDING |
11 |
7.5 |
ONE BLEEDING |
96 |
65.7 |
TWO BLEEDINGS |
21 |
14.5 |
THREE BLEEDINGS |
8 |
5.5 |
MORE THAN THREE BLEEDINGS |
10 |
6.6 |
TOTAL |
146 |
100 |
Unruptured aneurysms in this series are 11 cases. Of the
remaining 135 cases, 96 had one episode of intracranial bleeding,
21 cases 2 episodes 8 cases 3 episodes and 10 cases more than three
episodes. 51 cases were on the right side, 46 on the left, the
other were on the midline. In this series the recurrence of
bleeding is far more common for the internal carotid artery
aneurisms, less for the ones of the arterior communicating artery
and absent for the ones of the middle cerebral artery. In many
other series the anterior communicating aneurism is the most likely
to bleed again, stastical confirmation of a general opinion
(NORTHFIELD 1973)
The majority of the patients had possibly four vessels
angiography and more recently also CT Scan and MRI investigations
if required. Multiple aneurysms were found in only two cases: this
may be due to the fact that four vessels angiography was not done
in all patients. Arterial spasm was found in 56 patients (38 3%)
and a conspicuous intracerebral hematoma in 23 cases (15.7 per
cent). The intracerebral hematomas were more frequent for the
aneurysms of the middle cerebral artery (16 cases69.5%) followed by
the aneurysm on the anterior communication artery (five
cases-21.7%) whilst they were rare for the intracranial aneurisms
of the internal carotid artery and bifurcation (2 cases-8.6%).
For clinical assesment of these cases we have followed the
classification of HUNT and HESS (1968). The cases were divided as
follows:
TABLE 4 CL.INICAL FEATURES FOLLOWING HUNT AND
HESS CLASSIFICATION
CRITERIA |
NO.OF CASES |
PERCENT |
Asymplomatic, or minimal headache and slight nuchal
rigidity. |
56 |
38.3 |
Moderate 10 severe headache. nuchal rigidity, no neurological
deficit other than cranial nerve palsy |
34 |
23.3 |
Drowsiness. confusion. or mild focal deficit |
25 |
17.1 |
Stupor, moderate to severe hemi paresis possibly early
decerbrate rigidity and vegetative disturbances |
19 |
13. 1 |
Deep coma, decerbrate rigidity, moribund appearance. |
12 |
8.2. |
As seen in the above table, the condition of these patients were
quite satisfactory in 60 percent of them, discrete in 17 per cent
and very bad in more than 20 per cent of cases. Out of 146 cases,
131 underwent surgical treatment. Of the non surgical cases, 4 died
before planned surgery (one aneurism of basilar artery, one of
middle cerebral artery that died one hour before going to theatre,
two patients with aneurisms of the anterior Comm. Artery
respectively). 11 cases either refused surgery or were transferred
elsewhere.
SURGICAL TREATMENT
It is generally agreed that the surgical risk in aneurism
surgery is strictly related to the patients condition as well as to
other factor as age, location of the aneurysm, hypertension,
diabetes, arteriosclerosis, chronic pulmonary disease. Many
criteria have been proposed to evaluated risks but we have given
the preference again to the classification of HUNT and HESS (1968)
that takes in account mainly the intensity of the meningeal
reaction, the severity of neurological deficit, the presence or
absence of significant associated diseases: this should provide in
our experience the best clinical criteria for the estimate of
surgical risk.
Out of 131 in this series, the relationship between grade of
surgical risk and mortality following the classification of HUNT
and HESS was as follows:
TABLE 5 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GRADE OF SURGICAL
RISK AND MORTALITY
CATEGORY |
NO. OF CASES |
MORTALITY |
PERCENT |
GRADE 1 |
53 |
2 |
3.7 |
GRADE 11 |
28 |
5 |
17.8 |
GRADE 111 |
25 |
9 |
36.0 |
GRADE 1V |
17 |
12 |
70.5 |
GRADE V |
8 |
8 |
100.0 |
TOTAL |
131 |
36 |
27.4 |
This table confirms, if there was any need, that one should
avoid to perform any surgery in patients grade five and that in
patients grade 4 the risk of surgery is extremely high. The policy
should be to delay surgery in patients grade 4 and 5 until the
conditions are improving to grade 3 or they deteriorate until death
occurs. Our policy now is that not even angiographic investigations
should be carried out in cases grade five, but only a C.T. Scan of
the head should be done to rule out a possible intracerebral
hematoma, that may be worth evacuating in certain conditions.
In 118 cases a clip was applied on the aneurysmal neck (90% of
cases), in 6 cases the aneurysm was wrapped in muscle (4.5%), in 5
cases a trapping technique was carried out for aneurisms of the
internal carotid artery (4.5% of cases) and in one case of
intracavernous aneurysms, a ligature of the internal carotid artery
in the neck was performed. The Ibllowing table shows the
relationship between site of intracranial aneurisms technique used
and mortality rate:
TABLE 6 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SITE- TECHNIQUE-
MORTALITY
SITE |
NO.OF CASES |
CLIP |
WRAP |
TRAP |
LIG.C.A. |
MORTALITY |
|
I.C.A. |
61 |
55 |
- |
5 |
- |
11 |
18% |
M.C.A. |
21 |
19 |
2 |
- |
- |
10 |
47% |
A.C.A. |
4 |
4 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
0% |
A.COM.A. |
42 |
39 |
4 |
- |
- |
14 |
36% |
BASILAR A. 2 |
2 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
1 |
50% |
INRACAV. |
1 |
- |
- |
- |
1 |
- |
0% |
TOTAL |
131 |
119 |
6 |
5 |
1 |
36 |
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Only two patients have been reoperated: one for correcting the
position of the clip that was not properly applied. and one case
that developed a hypertensive hydrocephalous in which a shunt was
inserted. There has been no mortality in cases where wrapping has
been used. Two cases of trapping of the internal carotid artery for
aneurism that burst during dissection died, and one case of
progressive ligature of the internal carotid artery with the
MAYFIELD clamp .for an intracavenous aneurism survived without
neurological deficit. The use of clipping the aneurysmal neck
involved a 25 per cent of mortality. 'The relationship between the
time of last heamorrhage, surgery and mortality is shown in table
7.
TABLE 7 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LAST
HEMORRHAGE-SURGERY-MORTALITY
Timing |
No. of Cases |
Mortality |
Percent |
WITHIN ONE WEEK |
54. |
22 |
40.7 |
WITHIN TWO WEEKS |
37 |
12 |
32.5 |
WITHIN THREE WEEKS |
15 |
2 |
13.3 |
WITHIN FOUR WEEKS |
12 |
0 |
0 |
WITHIN TWO MONTHS |
5 |
0 |
0 |
WITHIN THREE MONTHS |
6 |
0 |
0 |
OVER THREE MONTHS |
2 |
0 |
0 |
TOTALS |
131 |
36 |
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The above table shows the timing of surgery from last
heamorrhage and relationship with mortality: earlier the surgery,
higher the mortality: nevertheless it has to be considered that the
range of mortality is mainly dependent not so much on the timing of
surgery related to the last heamorrhage but by the clinical state
ot the patient at the time of the operation, status reflecting the
degree of brain damage and accompanying complications. In this
series, if the patients were practically symptom free, the
mortality was 3.7 per cent, when in grade five of HUNT and HESS
scale, the mortality was 100 per cent. In intermediate groups the
mortality rates varies accordingly as already emphasised: the level
of conciousness was the most valuable index for predicting the
outcome.
RESULTS
The study of the literature discloses an operative mortality for
the inracranial surgical treatment of intracranial aneurism ranging
from 5 to 50 per cent. The Co-operative study (VIII part 2)
provided 979 patients treated in this way and 31 per cent died:
aneurisms of the middle cerebral artery had a mortality rate of 22
percent, on the internal carotid artery 36 per cent and on the
anterior communicating artery 30 per cent. In the Author's personal
series of 130 patients undergoing intracranial direct obliteration,
reinforcement or trapping, the mortality has been of 36 cases (27.7
per cent). The distribution in the three major groups was: internal
carotid artery 11 died (18 percent): anterior communicating artery
14 died (36 per cent): middle cerebral artery 10 died (47 per
cent).
The operation was carried out after the heamorrhage when the
patient's conditions appeared to allow it. Mild hypotension with
temporary occlusion of the carotid in the neck in large aneurisms,
has been used, associated with lumbar CSF drainage for better
exposure, magnification with loops or microscope.
Of the 95 survivors, 11 did not report for a check up after
having been discharged in good conditions. 84 of them had a follow
up from 2 months to 12 years with an average follow up of up to one
and a half years. The results were as follows:
TABLE 8 RESULTS OF SURGERY FOR VARIOUS TYPES OF
ANEURISMS
SITE |
SYMPTOMS FREE FULL WORKING |
MINIMAL DISABILITY FULL WORKING |
DIASBLED |
INTERNAL C.A. |
21 |
14 |
5 |
MIDDLE CA. |
6 |
2 |
2 |
ANT.COMM.A. |
20 |
6 |
2 |
ANT.CEREBR.A. |
4 |
- |
- |
BASILAR A. |
1 |
- |
- |
INTRACAVERN. |
1 |
- |
- |
TOTAL |
53 (63%) |
22 (26%) |
9 (11%) |
The above table shows that 89 per cent of these patients have
full working capacity with 26 per cent with minimal disability
(like some loss of concentration, minimal weakness in one limb
etc).
The other 9 patients ( 11 per cent) are not working because
disabled but able to care for themselves and are relatively
independent. No patient is bed ridden or in a nursing home.
The surgery of berry intracranial aneurism, despite the progress
in techniques and surgical ingenuity still carries a high mortality
due to the severity of the heamorrhage causing often intracerebral
hematomas, arterial spasm and other complications eventually
affecting badly the surrounding brain and the brain stem.
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Copyright 1995 Pan African Association of Neurological
Sciences
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