Infection After Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage Predicts Cerebral Vasospasm

Inflammation has been implicated in the causation of vasospasm after subarachnoid hemorrhage. However, the impact of a systemic inflammatory response, such as occurs in the presence of infection, has not been extensively studied. We assessed the impact of infection on the occurrence of clinical vasospasm after subarachnoid hemorrhage. We reviewed our retrospective neurovascular database for a 10-year period. Suspected risk factors for vasospasm were analyzed A total of 234 patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage were included in the analysis. Initial univariate analysis using the Cochran-Armitage trend test showed Hunt and Hess grade (P < 0.0001), Fisher grade (P = 0.0014), the number of days with fever (P = 0.0002), and the number of infections (P < 0.0001) were all statistically significant predictors of vasospasm. In the final multivariate logistic regression model, after stepwise elimination only “number of infections” remained a significant predictor of vasospasm (P...