Cardiac arrhythmias associated with subarachnoid hemorrhage: prospective study.

This is a prospective study of cardiac arrhythmias in patients with acute subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) secondary to ruptured aneurysm. Twenty per cent of the patients had serious, life-threatening arrhythmias. However, 100% of the patients had some kind of cardiac arrhythmia. The arrhythmias occurred during the first 48 hours after SAH. Such arrhythmias occur in patients without overt, pre-existing heart disease, hypoxemia, or electrolyte imbalance. A prolonged Q-T interval is frequently observed in patients with SAH who develop serious ventricular arrhythmias. (Neurosurgery, 5: 675--680, 1979).