LAUSR

BACKGROUND Hypertension-induction is often used for treating delayed cerebral ischemia (DCI) following aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage (aSAH), however, high-quality studies on its efficacy are lacking. We studied immediate and 3-/6-month clinical efficacy of hypertension-induction in aSAH patients with clinical DCI. METHODS A retrospective, multicentre, comparative, observational cohort study in aSAH patients with clinical deterioration due to DCI, admitted to three tertiary referral hospitals in the Netherlands from 2015-2019. Two hospitals used a strategy of hypertension-induction (HTI group) and one hospital had no such strategy (control group). We calculated adjusted relative risks (aRR) using Poisson regression analyses for the two primary (clinical improvement of DCI-symptoms at day 1 and 5 after DCI-onset) and secondary outcomes (DCI-related cerebral infarction, in-hospital mortality and poor clinical outcome (modified Rankin Scale 4-6) assessed at 3 or 6 months), using the intention-to-treat principle. We also performed as-treated and per-protocol analyses. RESULTS The aRR for clinical improvement on day 1 after DCI in the HTI group was 1.63, 95% C.I. 1.17-2.27 and at day 5 after DCI 1.04, 95% C.I. 0.84 to 1.29. Secondary outcomes were comparable between the groups. The as-treated and per-protocol analyses yielded similar results. CONCLUSIONS No clinical benefit of hypertension-induction is observed five days after DCI due to spontaneous reversal of DCI-symptoms in patients treated without hypertension-induction. 3-/6-Month clinical outcome was similar between both groups. Therefore, these data suggest that one may consider to not apply hypertension-induction in aSAH patients with clinical DCI.