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Brain (cerebral) aneurysms are feared by doctors and patients alike. What is a cerebral aneurysm? It is simply a dilation and weakening of one of the many blood vessels in the brain. From a clinical point of view, brain aneurysms can be divided into two types: bleeding (rupturing) and non-bleeding.

Those that are bleeding can be further subdivided into two types - rapid bleeders or slow bleeders. It is highly unlikely that you have a rapidly-bleeding ruptured brain aneurysm at this time. You would not be capable of reading this if you did. These aneurysms have a very high mortality (death) and disability rate. Slow bleeders on the other hand can be handled with great success if diagnosed and and treated quickly.

Non-bleeding aneurysms can be subdivided into two types also - those that are expanding and causing symptoms and those that are not. Those that are expanding need to be treated but the consensus of most doctors is that those that are not expanding simply need to be observed.

In general, bleeding aneurysms cause headaches while non-bleeding ones do not - but this is not always the case. By far the most common type of aneurysm is a non-bleeding, non-expanding aneurysm that is causing no symptoms. In fact, it is estimated that 6% of the residents of the United States have cerebral aneurysms, meaning that about 20,000,000 people are walking around with this condition. Yet only about 30,000 patients have aneurysms rupture, meaning that the vast majority of people with aneurysms never have a problem. Ruptures peak in those 50-60 years old then decrease.