Clinical experience with nimodipine in the prophylaxis of neurological deficits after subarachnoid hemorrhage.

The efficacy and tolerability of the dihydropyridine calcium antagonist nimodipine (BAY e 9736) in the prophylaxis of ischemic neurological deficits after subarachnoid hemorrhage were investigated in 171 patients in an open, prospective, multicenter study. 68 of the patients had to be excluded from the efficacy assessment as they had failed to satisfy important inclusion criteria. The efficacy assessment was based on 104 patients of Hunt and Hess grades I-III. In 86 patients the ruptured aneurysm was clipped before or during the nimodipine therapy, while 18 patients did not undergo surgery owing to failure to detect an aneurysm, continuous deterioration of the clinical condition, or for other reasons. At the end of the nimodipine treatment 74 of the patients (71%) were completely free from symptoms or had only very slight neurological deficits. There were 10 patients (10%) with moderate and 10 with a severe disablement, 4 patients were apallic, and 6 (6%) died during the nimodipine treatment. In 4 patients (3.8%) cerebral vasospasm was the sole cause of severe neurological deficits or death, while in a further 3 patients (2.7%) vasospasm and other serious complications were responsible for poor outcome. 22 of the 171 patients (12.9%) died during or shortly after nimodipine therapy. Rebleeding occurred during nimodipine therapy in 7 of the 143 preoperatively treated cases (4.9%).