What Causes Brain Aneurysm? Find it out!

What Causes Brain Aneurysm? Find it out!  Also, an aneurysm is a fragile area in the wall of a blood vessel that causes the vessel to bulge or increase in size. When the aneurysm occurs in a blood vessel in the brain , it is called a brain aneurysm.

It is estimated that up to 5% of the population has at least one brain aneurysm . 20% of these have two or more aneurysms at the same time. Aneurysms are more common in women and people over 50.

The rate of intracranial hemorrhage  due to a ruptured brain aneurysm , however, is only 10 per 100,000 people. Therefore, it can be concluded that, although brain aneurysms are not rare, most of them do not rupture. In fact, most brain aneurysms do not cause symptoms and the patient does not even suspect they have them.

The problem is that the rupture of an aneurysm , although uncommon, is a dramatic event. 15% of patients die before reaching the hospital and 50% die even after being rescued. And even when the patient survives a brain hemorrhage , 50% are left with neurological sequelae. So, check out  What Causes Brain Aneurysm? Find it out!

Possible Types of Brain Aneurysms:

• Saccular aneurysms , which can vary in size from a few millimeters to a centimeter
• Giant saccular aneurysms , which are often larger than two centimeters
• Multiple saccular aneurysms , which are inherited more often than other types.

Other types of brain aneurysms are enlargement of an entire blood vessel ( fusiform aneurysm ); or they can look like a “balloon” on the outside of a blood vessel. Such aneurysms can occur in any blood vessel that supplies the brain . These brain aneurysms can be caused by a variety of reasons, including high blood pressure (atherosclerosis), trauma, and infections , which can damage the vessel wall.

Cerebral Aneurysm Risk Factors: Several factors can contribute to the weakening of an arterial wall and thus increase the risk of brain aneurysm. Check out:

• Adults are more likely to have a brain aneurysm than a child
• Women are more likely to get the disease  than men
• Smoke
• Hypertension
• atherosclerosis
• Drug use, especially cocaine
• head wound
• Excessive alcohol consumption
•  Specific blood infections
• In women, lower estrogen levels after menopause

Causes of Brain Aneurysm: Brain  aneurysm develop  with weakening of the wall of a blood vessel. However, this can be due to several factors, such as:

• Family predisposition (15% of patients with aneurysms belong to a family where the incidence of the disease is higher);
• Arterial hypertension (high blood pressure facilitates the development and rupture of aneurysms );
• Dyslipidemia (increased levels of cholesterol and triglycerides );
  Diabetes
• Cigarette;
• Alcohol.

Cerebral Aneurysm Treatment:  Once the aneurysm has been diagnosed, the surgical indication must take into account its size and the patient’s clinical conditions, since the risk of surgery must be lower than that offered by the natural history of the disease ‘s evolution .

If surgery is chosen, the objective is to close the aneurysm to exclude it, preserving the artery that nourishes it, because all areas of the brain are noble and die if they are not irrigated.

The procedure can be performed in the open (through a small open window in the skull, the narrowest portion of the aneurysm is closed by a metal clip) or endovascularly , introducing delicate springs through a catheter , which are wound inside the aneurysm and form a clot that prevents bleeding. A person who should not, cannot or does not want to be operated on, needs to maintain strict control of blood pressure , not smoke and avoid physical exertion.

In the treatment of cerebral aneurysms , endovascular embolization  is now an important therapeutic approach. In general, teams work in a multidisciplinary way in deciding which methodology, that is, microsurgery or embolization, will be the best and most comfortable approach for each type of aneurysm and each patient’s physical condition. The patient’s opinion is also important in the decision of the methodology to be adopted.