In the cold winter, if you suddenly experience severe headaches like being hit in the head with a hammer and a stiff neck, you should visit the hospital quickly. This is because it can be a symptom of increased intracranial pressure due to bleeding from a ruptured brain aneurysm.
Vascular disease is especially dangerous in the cold winter, when blood pressure changes frequently due to the large temperature difference between indoor and outdoor, so special attention is required.
◆ Cerebral aneurysm… . I don’t know the cause
A cerebral aneurysm is a vascular disease in which a part of the blood vessel wall of a cerebral artery is stretched, causing fine cracks and abnormally swollen like an auricle.
According to the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service, the number of domestic patients diagnosed with non-ruptured cerebral aneurysm in 2021 was 143,808, an increase of about 5.6 times from 25,713 in 2010.
Women are more than twice as likely to have the disease than men, and the number of patients receiving hospitalization for ruptured brain aneurysm (subarachnoid hemorrhage) also increased from 5,490 in 2011 to 6,071 in 2021.
The exact cause of cerebral aneurysm is not yet known, but genetic factors are considered to be an important cause, and smoking and high blood pressure, which build up stress on the walls of blood vessels, are presumed to be the causes.
◆ ‘Subarachnoid hemorrhage’ is the biggest problem
The biggest problem of cerebral aneurysms is ‘subarachnoid hemorrhage’, and when subarachnoid hemorrhage occurs, it is said that about 20 to 60% of them die.
Subarachnoid hemorrhage refers to a disease in which bleeding occurs in the space (subarachnoid space) under the ‘arachnoid’, one of the meninges surrounding the brain parenchyma.
This space is relatively wide, and most of the large blood vessels that supply blood to the brain pass through, and it is an important space for cerebrospinal fluid to communicate.
◆ ‘Brain aneurysm’, a ticking time bomb in the head
Recently, an increasing number of patients are diagnosed with ‘non-ruptured cerebral aneurysm’, which is a state before rupture, through brain CT and MRI scans in health checkups.
Most patients with unruptured cerebral aneurysms are asymptomatic, but half of them are reported to lead to subarachnoid hemorrhage.
Therefore, non-ruptured patients always need to be aware of their condition, and to prevent rupture, thorough health care and continuous emergency preparedness are required.
In particular, since the possibility of bleeding increases with age, special attention is required for the elderly. 