Controlled Study of Nimodipine in Patients with Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage:Effect on the Short-Term Outcome and Safety Assessment

Paek, Sun Ha; Oh, Chang Wan; Han, Dae Hee

Abstract

From January 1996 to September 1996, we enrolled 30 patients with a clinical status over Hunt and Hess grade IV, presenting within 5 days after spontaneous subarachnoid hemorrhage to determine the effectiveness in early intervention of nimodipine on short-term outcome and its safety. The blood cell count and chemistry were performed before and 7 days after nimodipine treatment, and at discharge. The clinical outcome of the patients was assessed at discharge according to the Glasgow outcome scale. There was no evidence of abnormal change in blood chemistry including liver enzyme activity during the study. Four patients experienced episodes of decreased blood pressure;in one of them, drug administration was discontinued transiently. There was no significant difference in the short-term outcome between the nimodipine treated patients in this study and aneurysmal patients treated without nimodipine in our previous study. However, four of five patients experiencing symptomatic vasospasm in this study showed good o utcome at discharge. In conclusion, administration of nimodipine in the patients with spontaneous subarachnoid hemorrhage was safe and nimodipine seemed to have beneficial effect in protecting the patients with symptomatic vasospasm from severe ischemic damages.