Reversing the trend: interventions to treat intracranial haemorrhage associated with anticoagulation

Excerpt

Spontaneous intracranial haemorrhage (ICH) is less common as a cause of stroke than ischaemia, but it has significantly worse morbidity and mortality. To some extent this reflects, the different demographics of the populations affected, but a lack of effective therapeutic options is also a contributory factor. Whilst ICH as a result of underlying vascular malformations or other structural lesions offers certain neuroradiological and/or neurosurgical possibilities to prevent recurrence, interventions to reverse damage caused by the index event remain limited regardless of aetiology. As a result, current management is mainly supportive and includes reversal of anticoagulation where appropriate, blood pressure control, prevention of hyperglycaemia and pyrexia, and the treatment of emergent complications, such as seizures. …