Cerebral Pathology in Subarachnoid Haemorrhage.

Subarachnoid haemorrhage due to ruptured intracranial aneurysm is very common but there have been few reports of the pathology in brains of fatal cases. The work which has been done has largely been concerned with the distribution of clots and macroscopic infarcts (Robertson, 1949; Wilson, Riggs, and Rupp, 1954; Crompton, 1962). Tomlinson (1959) comments on ischaemic lesions observed macroscopically and histologically but only in the territory of the aneurysm-bearing vessel. Robertson (1949) and Birse and Tom (1960) mention cases in which ischaemic changes were found outside that territory. The present study is confined to the brains of patients dying from the consequence of subarachnoid haemorrhage without significant cerebral disruption or intracerebral clot. Of 30 brains examined macroscopically, only eight fulfilled these criteria, three from patients who were not operated on and five from patients who had undergone various surgical procedures. The brains were investigated by embedding large blocks in low-viscosity nitrocellulose, nine blocks being taken from each brain.