and Purpose: Population-based patient materials have not been used earlier in assessing the effects of neurosurgical treatment on survival and functional outcome of subarachnoid hemorrhage. Moreover, the proportion of all subarachnoid hemorrhage patients who might be candidates for neurosurgical treatment has not been estimated. Methods: We compared the survival and functional outcome of two population-based patient materials from Central Finland in 1976 through 1978 (n= 146) and 1980 through

more »

... 87 (n=351). The most important basic characteristics of both materials were similar. In the 1970s, only patients aged <60 years with carotid territory aneurysms were operated on after an interval of 2 weeks from the bleeding. In the 1980s, early surgery was attempted, and the other exclusion criteria were abandoned. Allocation to medical or surgical treatment was not randomized. Results: During the 1970s, only 14% of the patients had surgical treatment, with a median delay of 15 days after the bleeding; in the 1980s, the corresponding figures were 46% and 4 days. Despite these