Intracranial tumoural haemorrhage--a report of 58 cases.

In order to study the computerized tomographic (CT) appearances and clinical characteristics of intracranial tumoural haemorrhage (ITH), we analyzed retrospectively fifty-eight patients with ITH and reviewed the literature. As a result, 91% patients had acute or subacute onset and 26% manifested haemorrhage as their first symptoms. CT scanning indicated that intratumoural bleeding occurred in 23 cases, bleeding into parenchyma 18 cases, subarachnoid space 6 cases, ventricle 3 cases and subdural space 8 cases. Thirty-eight patients had emergency operations and the others had selective operations. Both tumours and haematomas were removed all together in all patients. Fifty-five patients were cured or improved and three died during the perioperative stage in our series. Among the patients with ITH, there were 21 metastatic tumours, 19 gliomas, 10 meningiomas, 6 pituitary adenomas, 1 melanoma and 1 acoustic neurilemoma. The onset of most ITH resembled that of cerebrovascular diseases. The location of ITH and the CT appearances of ITH varied in different cerebral tumours. Radical removal of brain tumours with haemorrhage is an effective treatment for ITH, which can greatly decrease the perioperative mortality rate and improve the prognoses of patients. Copyright 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd.