Two Different Classifications of Brain Aneurysm Symptoms

Brain aneurysm symptoms, just like with all other symptoms from other diseases and conditions, vary from person to person. It could be possible that this certain person may exhibit multiple symptoms, while another person will only manifest one or two. Basing on the symptoms also will also not help you in cementing an accurate diagnosis. In the case of brain aneurysm, you will need imaging studies done in order to visualize the affected area. But before we go to that, let us first look into what a brain aneurysm is.

A brain aneurysm is also called cerebral aneurysm or intracranial aneurysm. It is the out pouching of a weak blood vessel wall. This condition differs greatly from hemorrhagic stroke in a way that you can consider a brain aneurysm as a prelude to a stroke. Once the blood vessel becomes too weak and overly full with blood, it will have a great tendency to burst, thus resulting in a hemorrhagic stroke. Mind you though, not all aneurysms lead to strokes. There are some that are too small and will just remain that way for the duration of that person’s life. These small pouches are called unruptured aneurysms, while hemorrhagic stroke are ruptured aneurysms.

Brain aneurysm symptoms can be classified into two: unruptured aneurysms and ruptured aneurysms. They have different signs and symptoms and they will be discussed below.

People with unruptured out pouching do not usually exhibit any signs and symptoms. The reason behind that is blood flow is the brain is not affected, thus your activity and senses are not affected as well. However, there are those people who still exhibit some signs and symptoms despite the minor damage. They would usually experience: vision problems especially with their peripheral vision; thought processing problems including concentration, perception, and short-term memory; difficulty in speaking; and motor problems like activity intolerance, fatigue and loss of balance.

For people who have a rupture blood vessel, the symptoms are more specific and are usually experienced by most, if not all. They will be experiencing a sudden, blinding headache; sudden loss of sensation and numbness of the face or extremities; vision problems usually accompanied by photophobia; nausea and vomiting; and pain in the neck or at the back of the eye.

The window of opportunity for surgical treatment for hemorrhagic stroke, or a ruptured blood vessel, would be 24 to 48 hours. This greatly depends on the extent of the bleeding. You have to bear in mind that once a vessel has ruptured, blood would be pouring into your gray matter, damaging your neurons and other nerves surrounding that area. Once the damage has been done, it would be a very slow and painful walk back to get full control of your motor functions once again. That bleeding has to be stopped as soon as possible. Actually, looking into it, 24 hours seems like a long time already, right?

Through brain aneurysms may be responsible for millions of deaths yearly, it can easily be prevented with a healthy diet, proper exercise and abstinence from alcohol, smoking and drugs.