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Posted

My Spontaneous Dissecting Aneurysm

I have recently found out that the type of aneurysm I had that ruptured was a Spontaneous Dissecting Aneurysm. So not only (as we all know on here) is it so very rare to have a ruptured aneurysm at all but the type of aneurysm I had was a very rare sub type. My neuro-consultant has only ever seen 3 of these. Basically it formed then ruptured spontaneously. I hadn't been walking around with it, it was nothing to do with a bump on the head three weeks previously it just formed, then ruptured in an instant.

Having thought about this and what my consultant has said I now feel that not many people have survived this particular type of aneurysmal rupture, I have no eveidence to support this just this feeling I have.

Mine was successfully coiled and I have now been told it is completely occluded. I do have two infundebella, not sure of the spelling here! They are stable entities, not aneurysms. I will be having another scan in five years although my consultant expects to see no change with these. Happy with this.

So is there anybody out there who has had a Spantaneous Dissecting Aneurysm and just out of interest what were you doing at the time?

Posted

Hi Momo,

I had a vertical Arterial Dissection. It burst so bad that the artery just fell apart. There was no way to coil it as the artery was in two halves. They put stents in instead, kind of like new pipe work, and over lapped the artery.

You are right that it is very rare and the mortality rate is very high indeed. Guess that we are made of tougher stuff than we realise eh?:biggrin:

I had been at work all day and was sat having a well deserved cup of tea, never got to finish it...:lol:

Posted

Hi Momo,

My ruptured aneurysm wasn't the same type as yours, but I also have an infundibulum on the opposite side of the brain (posterior left comm artery), which is the mirroring artery as to the ruptured aneurysm and I've been told not to worry about it, but am hoping that they will keep an eye on it.

Will quote the meaning of infundibulum for members from the Wikipedia website :

Brain: A small outgrowth of the ventral wall of the embryo brain from which the pars nervosa (the posterior lobe) of the pituitary gland develops is also called the infundibulum. (Another name for this structure is the pituitary stalk.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infundibulum
Posted (edited)

Hi Maureen

I also had a dissecting aneurysm on my left vertebral artery. I was also told that it was very rare and that my neuroradiologist had only ever seen this kind of aneurysm in victims of road traffic accidents. I have never been in a road traffic accident and I hadn't had any kind of head trauma at all in the months (or years!) before my SAH. My artery had a bend in it, sort of like the U bend under a sink, when it should have been straight. The berry aneurysm was sitting on one of the bends.

This is why they have coiled the left vertebral artery too. When I was taken to theatre it was full to bursting with people who wanted to observe my op. I was awake for the first 1 and 1/2 hours. They did a balloon occlusion first, aparently there were legal reasons for this, to check that my right artery could cope, which it did and has done since. It was during this time that I lost all feeling in my left arm and they had to move the balloon, reposition it and then cement (their words) it in place. They had to leave in place for 30 mins while they did a battery of tests on me. I was then given the GA and that's when 9 coils were put in.

I was told that I was a miracle as I had not only survived 2 sentinal bleeds and the aneurysm rupture but also a sequential bleed. The professor of neurology told me that only 15% of people survive a sequential bleed and that almost all of these people have some sort severe disability. They were also very surprised that I remained coherent throughout my stay in hospital and that I have so relatively few problems now. But my bleed was at the back of my head and a lot of the blood went down my spine. I know I am very lucky and I'm very grateful that the aneurysm was at the back of my head.

But I was going through a very stressful family time when I had my bleeds and believe that my blood pressure was spiking but this aneurysm was going to burst at some point.

Edited by Liz D
  • 3 years later...
Posted

I originally posted this 3 years ago. I have found out a lot more since and my original post is not quite correct. I had a spontaneous dissection whereby the the artery dissected for no apparent reason (no aneurysm) my artery itself was sealed off with coils. I was exercising at the time of my rupture.

The spontaneous part of the description does not mean it ruptured in an instant as I described, it doesn't mean spontaneous at all. That term is used because it ruptured without blow to the head, car accident that kind of thing and it could have been dissecting for several days/weeks or longer before rupture. (This would explain my almost constant headaches.) More commonly this type of dissection results in a stroke and only very rarely a SAH.

However there is the added mystery of the fall I had 3 weeks before and no one knows if this is related.

One of my infundebella is infact an aneurysm (I got a second opinion on this ) but it is very low risk and so will not be treated. All aneurysms are assessed for risk of rupture.

Hope this all now makes a bit of sense.

Posted

Hi Momo,

I'm not sure whether you mean an Infundibulum rather than an Infundebella? I discovered a few years down the line that I also have an Infundibulum on the opposite artery to the bleed, but on the left hand side of the brain (post communicating artery), that may or may not turn into an aneurysm.

The rubbish Neuro that I was seeing at my local hospital, just blabbed it out when he was in a fix because he couldn't remember who I was, or what I was there for ... so just read out my notes aloud and that's when I heard it. :shock:Therefore, I started searching when I got home! xx

Posted

My husband doesn't like to talk about my SAH it was a cherry type one and it burst hence the bleed G4

I try and get info out of them but it upsets my daughter to recall it.

Hubby just says "You are alive so be grateful" lol

Be Well All

WinB143 xx

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