Mayo Clinic neurosurgeon Giuseppe Lanzino, M.D., and Alejandro A. Rabinstein, M.D., a neurologist, discuss treatment of patients with subarachnoid hemorrhages that result from ruptured brain aneurysms. This condition, one of the most complex acute conditions encountered in medicine, poses difficult and complicated neurological and systemic issues for the health care team.

Rupture of an intracranial aneurysm was traditionally associated with a poor prognosis, and survivors were left with significant physical and cognitive disabilities. Thanks to improvements in critical care and all the processes surrounding this disorder, the potential for a full physical and cognitive recovery from this condition is now possible.