Epidemiological analysis of 1404 patients with intracranial aneurysm followed in a single Brazilian institution

We sought to evaluate the epidemiology of intracranial aneurysms in relation to location, gender, age, presence of multiple aneurysms, and comorbidities in the Brazilian population. We performed a prospective analysis of a cohort of 1404 patients diagnosed with intracranial aneurysm admitted to the Hospital das Clinicas of the University of Sao Paulo, a referral hospital for the treatment of cerebrovascular diseases in Brazil. Patients admitted between September 2009 and September 2018 with radiological diagnosis of intracranial aneurysm were included in the study. A total of 2251 aneurysms were diagnosed. Females accounted for 1090 aneurysms (77.6%) and the mean age at diagnosis was 54.9 years (ranging 15-88). The most common location was middle cerebral artery (MCA) with 593 aneurysms (26.3%) followed by anterior cerebral artery (ACA) with 417 aneurysms (18.5%) and internal carotid artery in the posterior communicating segment with 405 aneurysms (18.0%). Males had higher rates of ACA aneurysms (29.7%) while females had higher rates of MCA aneurysms (26.1%). Sorting by size, 492 aneurysms were 24 mm (5.2%). The occurrence of multiple aneurysms was associated with female gender ( < 0.001) and smoking ( < 0.001), but not with hypertension ( = 0.121). In this population, the occurrence of intracranial aneurysm is related to several factors, including gender, age, smoking, and hypertension. Our study brought to light important characteristics of a large number of Brazilian patients regarding epidemiology, location, size, and multiplicity of intracranial aneurysms.