Fundus findings in spontaneous subarachnoid hemorrhage and their correlation with neurologic characteristics.

PURPOSE To determine the incidence of fundus findings in spontaneous subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) and their correlation with neurologic characteristics. METHODS In a prospective case series, 202 eyes of 101 patients with SAH were evaluated from September 2003 to September 2006. The incidence of fundus findings was detected and correlated with gender, age, consciousness state, Fisher score, site and number of aneurysms, laterality of aneurysms, aneurysmal rebleeding, and mortality rate. RESULTS Fifty (49.5%) patients had normal and 51 (50.5%) patients had abnormal funduscopic examination. Of all eyes, disc swelling in 85 (42.1%), retinal hemorrhage in 51 (25.2%), subhyaloid hemorrhage in 6 (3%), and vitreous hemorrhage in 3 (1.5%) eyes were detected. No relation was found between gender, age, Fisher score, number of aneurysms, laterality of aneurysms, aneurysmal rebleeding, and mortality rate and fundus findings. However, a correlation was observed between consciousness state and retinal hemorrhage (p=0.002) and disc swelling (p=0.002), and also between the anterior communicating artery location of aneurysm and retinal hemorrhage (p=0.017) and any kind of fundus findings (p=0.007). CONCLUSIONS Fundus findings including hemorrhage and disc swelling are common in patients with SAH and are related to the consciousness state and anterior communicating artery location of aneurysm.