A review of stereotaxy and lysis for intracranial hemorrhage.

Intracranial hemorrhage represents a significant cause of human morbidity and mortality, leaving as many as 80% of patients either dead or disabled. Techniques for management of hemorrhage include optimal medical care, craniotomy, endoscopy, and stereotaxy. This work reviews the history of cranial stereotaxy for evacuation of nontraumatic hemorrhage beginning with techniques for mechanical disruption of the coagulated hemorrhage modeled after Archimedes screw. We discuss the properties of urokinase and tissue plasminogen activator, which have been utilized for lysis, and the outcomes after stereotactic fibrinolytic evacuation of intracerebral hemorrhage. The ongoing clinical trials evaluating the efficacy of stereotactic fibrinolysis are also discussed.