On the Analysis of Subarachnoid Hemorrhage Data

To the Editor.— The recent article by Millikan, "Cerebral Vasospasm and Ruptured Intracranial Aneurysm" ( Arch Neurol 32:433-449, 1975), illustrates the difficulties in the analysis of data related to this illness. Some of these are encountered in the case reports, exemplified by the summary of case 1. The statement, "severe dysphasia continued along with moderate right hemiparesis," was used to describe this patient's status at the time of hospital dismissal. This does not, in our judgment, convey to the reader the idea of an ambulatory patient with normal strength and minimal reduction in alternate motion rate in the right limbs and a moderate communicatory speech deficit. This patient was asymptomatic, with normal results on neurological examination, on a recent follow-up visit one year after surgery. Examination of the gross mortality figures is necessary because it should eliminate a subjective component of data analysis. Our department performed 261 procedures on 249 patients