Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage Grading in Animal Models

Several clinical grading systems of aneurysmal subarachnoid exist and play a critical role in predicting outcome and grouping patients according to degree of injury to evaluate the efficacy of both surgical and medical interventions. Only one grading system is published for experimental aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage, and has yet to be widely adopted. Without the ability to quantify the degree of injury in experimental groups, it is impossible to know the effects of intervention. The quantification of subarachnoid blood in experimental models will be most useful for the endovascular perforation model, which has been criticized for the lack of control over bleeding. This chapter outlines the simple and objective SAH grading system previously published by our group. This grading system was validated in Sprague Dawley rats, but has the potential to be adapted to other aneurysmal SAH models.