• Julie E Buijs, Paut Greebe, and Gabriël J E Rinkel.
• Utrecht Stroke Center, Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Rudolf Magnus Institute of Neuroscience, University Medical Center, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
• Neurosurgery. 2012 Apr 1;70(4):868-72.

BackgroundAwareness of having an unruptured intracranial aneurysm can affect quality of life and provoke feelings of anxiety and depression, even in treated patients, because of fear of recurrence of aneurysms.ObjectiveTo assess quality of life and feelings of anxiety and depression in patients with an unruptured aneurysm with or without aneurysm occlusion.MethodsWe sent postal questionnaires (Medical Outcomes Study Short Form-36, EuroQol-5D, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale) to 229 patients with an unruptured aneurysm and no history of subarachnoid hemorrhage identified from our database. Group mean scores and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were compared between the no intervention group and the intervention group and with a reference population using the Student t test and χ(2) test.ResultsIn total, 173 questionnaires (76%) were returned. There were no statistically significant differences in quality of life and anxiety and depression levels between patients with and those without aneurysm occlusion. Patients in the no intervention group compared with the reference population had a significantly reduced quality of life in the physical function (-10.7; 95% CI, -16.2 to -5.1), role physical (-15.8; 95% CI, -25.5 to -6.0), role emotional (-9.9; 95% CI, -18.7 to -1.1), vitality (-7.2; 95% CI, -12.1 to -2.4), and general health (-11.6; 95% CI, -16.2 to -6.9) domains. Results were comparable in the intervention group except for the role emotional domain, which was not statistically significantly reduced.ConclusionPatients with an unruptured aneurysm have a reduced quality of life compared with the reference population, mainly in physical domains, but without an apparent effect on mood or anxiety. The extent of reduction in quality of life is similar in patients with and without aneurysm occlusion.

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