Whether you have had treatment such as clipping or coiling or doctors are managing your unruptured aneurysm without surgery, you can expect to continue most normal activities, unless your doctors advise you otherwise — and depending on circumstances, that can also include flying.
Things to avoid include: smoking. eating a high-fat diet. not controlling high blood pressure.
In general, flying after brain injury is safe, as long as the brain has had enough time to heal and your symptoms are not severe. How long it takes for the brain to sufficiently heal will vary between persons, but airlines recommend waiting at least ten days after an incident.
People with a diagnosed brain aneurysm should carefully control high blood pressure, stop cigarette smoking, and avoid cocaine use or other stimulant drugs. Women should check with their doctors about the use of oral contraceptives.
Before flying anywhere, check with your doctor that it is absolutely safe to do so. If your aneurysm has not ruptured, check on the state of it. If it has already ruptured, then check that you have everything you need to take care of it. Bring enough medication to last you your trip and any emergencies.
But aneurysms are not included on the American Medical Association's list of conditions that make flying risky, and a number of people with aneurysms, including members of airline flight crews, have reported no ill effects from flying.
Hemorrhagic stroke: Arterial blood pressure elevation at high altitude increases the risk of rupture of cerebral aneurysms and arterial venous malformations, as well as carrying a theoretical risk of hypertension-related cerebral hemorrhage.
*Blood thinners (such as warfarin), some medications and prescription drugs (including diet pills that act as stimulants such as ephedrine and amphetamines), and harmful drugs like cocaine can cause aneurysms to rupture and bleed.
With rapid, expert treatment, patients can often recover fully. An unruptured brain aneurysm may cause zero symptoms. People can live with them for years before detection.
As for why airplane headaches occur, scientists think "it's due to an imbalance between the air pressure in the cabin and those in the frontal sinuses," says lead author Dr. Federico Mainardi.
A severe headache that comes out of nowhere (often described as the worst headache one has ever felt) Blurred vision. Feeling nauseated. Throwing up.
Can people live a long time with a brain aneurysm? Absolutely. Many aneurysms cause no symptoms at all. Some people live for years without knowing they have a brain aneurysm.
Memory involves many parts of the brain, and if a brain aneurysm rupture or treatment damages any of those areas, your memory will be affected. Survivors of ruptured aneurysms usually do not remember the event or much of what happened in the hospital, and never will. This can be disconcerting but is normal.
The bulging aneurysm can put pressure on the nerves or brain tissue. It may also burst or rupture, spilling blood into the surrounding tissue (called a hemorrhage). A ruptured aneurysm can cause serious health problems such as hemorrhagic stroke, brain damage, coma, and even death.
Spontaneous regression in size or complete disappearance of an aneurysm is a known phenomenon, more commonly noted in giant intracranial aneurysms. However, reappearance or regrowth of such aneurysms is rare with few anecdotal reports.
An unruptured brain aneurysm may not have any symptoms, especially if it's small. However, a larger unruptured aneurysm may press on brain tissues and nerves. Symptoms of an unruptured brain aneurysm may include: Pain above and behind one eye.
If this bulge (aneurysm) bursts, blood enters and damages the brain. When this happens, it is referred to as a hemorrhagic stroke. While brain aneurysms are less frequent than ischemic strokes, they are more deadly.
Vaughn cautioned. A ruptured aneurysm is a life-threatening emergency. Signs of a ruptured aneurysm include feeling lightheaded, experiencing a rapid heart rate and feeling severe or sudden pain in your abdomen, chest, or back.
People with altitude illness should not travel to higher elevations until they no longer have symptoms. A person whose symptoms get worse while resting should travel to a lower elevation to avoid becoming seriously ill or dying. High-altitude cerebral edema (HACE) is a more serious form of AMS.
People who are born with an abnormality in an artery wall and those with certain genetic conditions are also more likely to develop cerebral aneurysms. These conditions include Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, Marfan syndrome, osteogenesis imperfecta, Moyamoya disease, fibromuscular dysplasia, and neurofibromatosis.
Treatment with a catheter is done without open surgery. The patient is given an anesthetic. The catheter is inserted into an artery in the groin and then moved up into the blood vessel in the brain that has the aneurysm. The doctor can then place small platinum coils in the aneurysm through the catheter.