Spontaneous Subarachnoid Hemorrhage of Aneurysmal Origin

Morgagni1of Padua in 1761 first described an intracranial aneurysm, and seventeen years later Biumi2of Milan described a case of subarachnoid hemorrhage, the cause of which was found at autopsy to be a ruptured aneurysm of the circle of Willis. For the next seventyfive years the continental medical literature carried reports of hemorrhages and of aneurysms with little evidence of correlation between the two subjects. In 1859 Gull3of Guy's Hospital correlated these reports and emphasized that spontaneous subarachnoid hemorrhage usually was due to rupture of an aneurysm of one of the arteries on the base of the brain. In 1924 Symonds,4also of Guy's Hospital, and in 1941 Richardson and Hyland5of Toronto brought the subject up to date in complete monographs. Recent reports by Magee6and by Wolf, Goodell and Wolff7have contributed data especially concerning prognosis. This report is