Neurobehavioral Assessments of Cerebral Vasospasm

For many years, neurosurgeons and neurointerventionalists have been focused on the neurological functionality of the patients as a main measure assessing the effects of treatment of intracranial aneurysms. But, individual experience, sporadic series of patients operated in a delayed fashion, as well as the patients operated before an aneurysm rupture indicate a necessity for better neurological, psychological, and Quality Of Life (QOL) assessments because the Glasgow Outcome Scale and QOL scale have become inadequate in the face of everyday life challenges for many patients. But to develop and test reliability of new tools, we need to develop a better understanding of pathomechanism(s) of neurobehavioral changes after aneurismal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH) and at this moment we are lacking proper experimental models. Fortunately, animal models that have been developed to investigate delayed cerebral vasospasm should help to examine neurobehavioral changes after aSAH. Therefore, albeit many limitations that must be kept in mind, a systematic research, especially using a nonhuman primate model, should continue to play a critical role in the understanding of cognitive and behavioral function after aSAH.