August 10, 2001

According to some studies, more than 2 million people in the United States have brain aneurysms that have not yet ruptured. The risk of rupture is thought to be between 1 and 2 percent. Despite advances in diagnostic, surgical and anesthetic techniques, the outcome for patients with ruptured aneurysms remains poor. At right, A 3-D image of a brain with an aneurysm.

To help address this medical issue, the Brain Aneurysm Foundation was established in 1994 by an aneurysm survivor, Suzanne Kellogg, RN, in collaboration with Christopher S. Ogilvy, MD, director of MGH Cerebrovascular Surgery, and Deidre Buckley, RN, NP, coordinator for the MGH Brain Aneurysm/Arteriovenous Malformation (AVM) Center. The center was created to provide support and education for brain aneurysm patients and their families as well as to promote education among health care professionals and support research on the cause and treatment of brain aneurysms.

The Brain Aneurysm Foundation and the MGH Brain Aneurysm/AVM Center will be hosting a three-day brain aneurysm awareness event that will include an information booth in the Main Corridor Aug. 22, 23 and 24, from 9 am to 3 pm. Representatives from the foundation will be present to answer questions.

A symposium will be held Aug. 23, under the Bulfinch Tent, from 6 to 9 pm, featuring Sucheta Kamath, MA, CCC/SLP, of MGH Speech Pathology and president of the Brain Aneurysm Foundation, who will talk about the Steps to Success, a program designed for individuals with brain injuries. Bob Carter, MD, PhD, an MGH neurosurgeon, Colin McDonald, MD, an MGH neurologist, and Bob Brown, MD, a neurologist from the Mayo Clinic, will talk about care and treatment of patients with both ruptured and unruptured aneurysms. A question-and-answer forum will follow.

For more information, call the Brain Aneurysm Foundation office at (617) 723-3870.