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Review Article. Intracerebral Aneurysms: A Review With Special Attention to Geriatric Aspects

¹ Centre de Gérontologie, Hôpital de la Robertsau, Strasbourg, France.
² Unité de Recherche en Gériatrie de l'Université Laval
³ Département des Sciences Neurologiques, Centre Hospitalier Affilié Universitaire de Québec, Canada.
⁴ Département de Médecine Sociale et Préventive, Université Laval, Québec, Canada.

Rupture of an intracranial aneurysm (ICA) remains a devastating complication associated with a high degree of morbidity and mortality. In the past 2 decades, older people were often excluded from active treatment on the unique basis of their chronological age. Recent developments of less-invasive techniques for the diagnosis and treatment of ruptured and unruptured ICAs suggest that this fatalistic attitude toward older patients should be reconsidered. Furthermore, taking into account the heterogeneity of the elderly population, the use of a comprehensive geriatric assessment approach, based on a multidisciplinary evaluation, appears particularly helpful in proposing the optimal treatment strategy for each older patient. This article reviews the geriatric features of epidemiological, physiopathological, as well as clinical and therapeutic aspects of ruptured and unruptured ICAs.