Räty, Silja; Sallinen, Hanne; Virtanen, Pekka; Haapaniemi, Elena; Wu, Teddy Y.; Putaala, Jukka; Meretoja, Atte; Tatlisumak, Turgut; Strbian, Daniel
(2021)
Objectives Posterior location affects the clinical presentation and outcome of ischemic stroke, but little is known about occipital intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH). We studied non-traumatic occipital ICH phenotype, outcome, and post-ICH epilepsy. Materials and Methods Occipital ICH patients were retrospectively identified from the Helsinki ICH Study registry of 1013 consecutive ICH patients treated in our tertiary center in 2005-2010. They were compared to non-occipital ICH patients to evaluate the effect of location on functional outcome at discharge (dichotomized modified Rankin Scale, mRS), 3- and 12-month mortality, and incidence of epilepsy. Results We found 19 occipital ICH patients (5.3% of lobar and 1.9% of all ICH). Compared to non-occipital lobar ICHs, they were younger (median age 63 vs 71 years,P= .007) and had lower National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale on admission (1 vs 8,P<.001), smaller hematoma volume (6.3 vs 17.7 ML,P= .008), and more frequently structural etiology underlying the ICH (26% vs 7%,P= .01). Mortality at both 3 and 12 months was 6%, whereas 84% reached favorable outcome (mRS 0-2) at discharge. Occipital location was associated with favorable outcome at discharge in lobar ICH (OR 11.02, 95% CI 1.55-78.20). Incidence of post-ICH epilepsy (median follow-up 2.7 years) was 18%, equaling to that of non-occipital lobar ICH. Conclusions Occipital ICH patients are younger, have less severe clinical presentation, smaller hematoma volume, more often structural etiology, and better outcome than other ICH patients. They exhibit a similar risk of epilepsy as non-occipital ICHs.