By Dr. Renato Oliveira
Aneurysms are a silent but serious health threat. Most don’t cause symptoms until it’s too late. While people commonly confuse them with blood clots, they aren’t the same. An aneurysm is a weak area in a blood vessel that begins to bulge or balloon. When the ballooning blood vessel is in the brain, it’s called a “cerebral aneurysm.” The danger is that it can suddenly burst, causing life-threatening bleeding in the brain. Fortunately, medical advances—such as those available at Riverside Regional Medical Center—can help us find and treat them before they rupture.
Finding Aneurysms Before They Become an Emergency
Every day, we see people who had no idea they had a brain aneurysm because they didn’t have symptoms. That’s why it’s important to know your risk factors. They include:
High (uncontrolled) blood pressure.
Smoking, tobacco use, or drug use.
Gender. Women are slightly more prone than men.
Certain inherited medical conditions.
Strong family history. If two or more of your close relatives have had brain aneurysms, screening with an MRI or CT angiogram may be appropriate.
Often, physicians “just happen” to discover aneurysms during imaging tests for other reasons. It lets us carefully evaluate their size, location, and bleeding risk to decide whether treatment or monitoring is best. Riverside Regional Medical Center has leading-edge tools called cerebral angiograms that provide detailed 3D images of the brain’s blood vessels to help us locate unruptured aneurysms.
Warning Signs of a Ruptured Aneurysm
Ruptured aneurysms are emergencies that demand immediate treatment. About 20 to 30% of patients don’t even make it to the hospital, which is why it’s critical to recognize the warning signs. Call 911 immediately if you experience:
A sudden, excruciating headache, often described as “the worst headache of your life.” It can reach a maximum level of intense, stabbing pain in less than an hour.
Sudden weakness or numbness, especially on one side of the body.
Sudden vision changes, an eye that abruptly changes position (e.g., lazy eye), or vision loss.
Difficulty speaking, confusion, or loss of consciousness.
Don’t wait. There is only a small window of time in which lifesaving treatment may be possible.
Advanced Care for Coastal Virginia
Ideally, the goal is to prevent an aneurysm from bursting. Both prevention and emergency treatment used to require opening the brain, but not anymore. Today, our team treats nearly 99% of aneurysms with endovascular brain surgery. That means we don’t need to shave the head or open the skull. Instead, we reach the site through the body’s blood vessels. Riverside Regional is the only place on the Virginia Peninsula to offer neurovascular care for both ruptured and unruptured brain aneurysms. This includes:
Intrasaccular devices. These mesh-like implants make treatment faster and safer, without the need to put patients on a lot of blood thinners.
Stents. Stents are usually used to prevent rupture.
Coiling. Coils can help prevent rupture, or act like a band-aid after rupture.
Equipped with advanced technologies and techniques, our team is focused on providing expert care and delivering lifesaving treatment when every minute counts.
Renato Oliveira, M.D., is a board-certified vascular neurologist with Riverside
Neurovascular Specialists.
