What you should not do after a brain bleed are any heavy lifting, straining, driving until cleared by your doctor and any vigorous chores.
After the brain bleed you should avoid any vigorous housework or yard work like mowing the lawn, snow shoveling, mopping, vacuuming etc.
And avoid bending over at your waist or engaging in any jarring or intense exercise like contact sports, heavy weight lifting, running etc to keep your intracranial pressure low and avoid lifting anything over 10 pounds.
Also after a brain bleed avoid alcohol and any recreational drugs and also avoid blood thinners including aspirin, ibuprofen or NSAIDs unless your doctor prescribes them as they promote bleeding and can make the brain bleed worse or possibly come back.
The average hospital stay for a brain bleed is 1 week to 2 weeks.
Although the hospital stay for a brain bleed can vary and can be just from 1 to 3 days for minor and minimally invasive cases of brain bleeds and up to a month or a bit longer for more severe and surgically treated brain bleeds.
Smaller brain bleeds that only require monitoring often result in a 3 to 7 day hospital stay, but severe and large volume brain bleeds often require weeks of intensive care.
Minimally invasive procedures like endovascular procedures often require only 1 day in the hospital, and open surgical procedures like craniotomies can mean you need to stay in the hospital for a week or longer.
If you have any complications like pneumonia or infections, it can also prolong the hospital stay.
And after acute medical stabilization for the brain bleed, you may be transferred directly to an inpatient rehab facility to regain your speech, strength and mobility.
Some mild cases of brain bleeds can be treated without surgery, although more severe brain bleeds often require surgery.
If a brain bleed is large or grows rapidly it creates dangerous pressure on the surrounding brain tissue, which can be deadly without immediate medical treatment.
In some case a doctor may use a catheter, which is a thin tube that is inserted through a blood vessel in the groin to reach the affected area in your brain to drain fluid or seal off the bleeding vessel without traditional open surgery.
And instead of cutting into your skull, the medical team may monitor your condition with frequent neurological exams and repeated CT scans.
Doctors will also often prescribe medications to manage pain, control blood pressure and prevent seizures or reverse the effects of any blood thinning medications that you might be taking.
The way doctors treat a brain bleed is by first stopping the bleeding, relieving pressure on your skull and by addressing the underlying cause of the brain bleed.
The treatment for the brain bleed will depend on the size, location and severity of the brain bleed.
If you take anticoagulants, doctors will immediately administer medications like fresh frozen plasma, vitamin K to reverse them and stop ongoing bleeding.
Doctors will also manage your blood pressure as high blood pressure usually makes the brain bleed worse and IV medications are used to lower and stabilize your blood pressure during a brain bleed.
Doctors may also use anti-seizure medications as well as corticosteroids to reduce swelling and pain management to treat severe headaches.
When surgery is needed for the brain bleed, a surgeon will drill a small hole in your skull and insert a tube to suction out the pooled blood and relieve brain pressure.
A larger section of the skull may also be removed, through a surgical procedure called a craniotomy, so the surgeon can directly access your brain to stop the bleeding, remove a blood clot or clip a leaking brain aneurysm.
And if the brain swelling in the brain bleed is severe enough, a piece of the skull may be left off temporarily to allow the brain enough room to expand without sustaining further damage.
And surgeons may also use techniques like coiling or placing a clip to seal off ruptured aneurysms or remove abnormal masses of blood vessels.
In some cases minimally invasive procedures like endovascular embolization may be done, by using a catheter that is threaded through a blood vessel, often from your groin, then the doctor navigates to the bleeding site in the brain and then inject special glue, coils or polymers to block off the leaking blood vessel without requiring an open skull procedure.
The deadliest brain bleed also known as a brain hemorrhage is a intracerebral hemorrhage as well as an acute subdural hematomas.
Both of these brain bleeds are medical emergencies, just like other brain bleeds and brain hemorrhages are and causes bleeding inside the skull, that rapidly increases pressure and compresses vital brain tissue and causes catastrophic brain damage.
With an intracerebral hemorrhage, the bleeding occurs directly into your brain tissue itself and is the most deadly type of brain hemorrhage and brain bleed and stroke, which carries a 30 day mortality rate of up to 40 percent to 50 percent and is mainly caused by chronic high blood pressure.
Acute subdural hematoma is when bleeding pools rapidly between your brain and the outermost protective covering called the dura mater.
Acute subdural hematoma is often a result of and caused by severe head trauma and causes a rapid and dangerous spike in intracranial pressure and is also one of the most lethal forms of traumatic brain injury.
The first signs of a brain bleed also known as a brain hemorrhage are having a sudden and severe headache that is usually described as the worst headache of your life as well as neurological changes, motor impairment and speech and vision issues.
The headache with a brain hemorrhage or brain bleed is an abrupt, excruciating headache that is also called a thunderclap headache.
Neurological changes that occur with a brain hemorrhage include unexplained weakness, numbness or tingling, especially on one side of your face, arm or leg.
Motor impairment with a brain hemorrhage includes a sudden loss of balance, coordination or the inability to move an arm or leg.
And speech and vision issues that occur with a brain hemorrhage include slurred speech, difficulty understanding language or sudden changes in vision like blurred or double vision.
Other associated symptoms with a brain hemorrhage include seizures, confusion, unusual sleepiness, lethargy or loss consciousness, sudden, severe nausea and vomiting and stiff neck or sensitivity to light, which is common in certain types of brain bleeds.
The golden hour of a brain hemorrhage is the critical first 60 minutes after symptom onset occurs.
During the golden hour of a brain hemorrhage, getting immediate emergency medical evaluation and neurosurgical treatment is critical and crucial to stabilize the patients blood pressure, prevent hematoma expansion and minimize permanent, life threatening brain damage.
A brain hemorrhage does sometimes cause immediate death, but not always.
Immediate death can be caused by a brain hemorrhage when the person experiences brainstem compression, massive pressure spikes and even sudden cardiac arrest.
A massive brain injury and brain bleed due to a brain hemorrhage can also trigger an overwhelming surge of stress hormones called catecholamines, which can cause your heart to stop pumping abruptly.
And the skull is also a rigid and enclosed bone structure with no room to expand and so a rapid, large volume brain bleed quickly forces the blood into the tight space, which causes an immediate and severe spike in your intracranial pressure.
This severe spike in intracranial pressure can also stop the blood flow to the rest of your brain or even cause your brain to shift downward also known as herniation, which can be fatal instantly.
And if a large bleed occurs near or expands into your brainstem, it also compresses the areas of your brain, which control life's vital functions like heart rate and breathing, which can lead to death.
Many people survive a brain hemorrhage with prompt and proper treatment, but it is still a severe and life threatening medical emergency.
A brain hemorrhage does shorten your life expectancy as around 30 percent to 40 percent of people with a brain hemorrhage do not survive the first 30 days after the brain hemorrhage.
For people that do survive the brain hemorrhage in the acute phase, the long term survival with the brain hemorrhage, with life expectancy being reduced by an estimated 7.4 years.
Around half of all fatal cases of brain hemorrhages occur within the first 2 days and overall, early mortality with a brain hemorrhage is high, with up to 40 percent of people passing away within the 1st month.
And less than half of those who experience a hemorrhagic stroke are also alive after one year.
And around 29% to 38% of people survive past 5 years after the brain hemorrhage and around 24 % of initial survivors are alive at the 1 year mark.
Survivors of brain hemorrhages also carry an elevated risk of subsequent strokes, which also impacts lifespan further.
The death rate after a brain hemorrhage is between 40 percent to 50 percent.
After a brain hemorrhage, a person is also often able to live up to 5 years after the brain hemorrhage, although the 5 year survival after the brain hemorrhage also depends on the persons age, overall health and other factors.
Ruptured brain aneurysms are deadly in around 50 percent of cases.
The 4 types of brain hemorrhages are intracerebral hemorrhage, subarachnoid hemorrhage, subdural hematoma and epidural hematoma.
In intracerebral hemorrhage, brain hemorrhages, also known as an intraparenchymal hemorrhage, this brain hemorrhage involves bleeding directly within the actual brain tissue (such as the lobes, brainstem, or cerebellum).
The intracerebral brain hemorrhage is a dangerous form of hemorrhagic stroke most commonly caused by chronic high blood pressure (hypertension), which weakens the small arteries inside the brain over time.
In subarachnoid brain hemorrhages, bleeding occurs in the subarachnoid space, which is the area between the arachnoid membrane and the inner pia mater where cerebrospinal fluid flows.
While the subarachnoid brain hemorrhage can happen from trauma, it is widely known as a type of stroke frequently triggered by a ruptured brain aneurysm.
The subarachnoid brain hemorrhage is famously characterized by a sudden, severe headache often called a "thunderclap headache."
In subdural hematoma, bleeding occurs just underneath the dura mater, in the space between the dura and the arachnoid membrane.
The subdural hematoma, is usually caused by the tearing of bridging veins due to head trauma.
Subdural hematomas often creates a crescent-shaped pool of blood that spreads across the brain's surface.
In epidural hematomas, bleeding occurs between the skull bone and the outer membrane layer, the dura mater.
The epidural hematoma is almost always caused by a severe head injury, such as a skull fracture that tears the middle meningeal artery.
On a diagnostic scan, epidural hematomas typically shows up as a distinctive lens-shaped pool of blood.
Another brain hemorrhage type is a brainstem hemorrhage, which is when bleeding occurs in the brainstem and is often the most critical as the brainstem controls vital life functions like heart rate, breathing, and blood pressure.
And due to the density of essential neural pathways in this small area, even minor bleeding can become life threatening.
Brain hemorrhages are serious medical conditions, and their severity often depends on the location and the speed at which the bleeding occurs.