Finding silent cerebral aneurysms: the importance of doing nothing
- Correspondence to: Professor Michael Brainin Clinical Neurosciences, Department of Clinical Medicine and Prevention, Donau-Universität Krems, Dr. Karl Dorrekstrasse 30, 3500 Krems, Austria; michael.brainin{at}donau-uni.ac.at
Doing nothing can be a good treatment option in patients with an unruptured small cerebral aneurysm
Doing nothing can be a good treatment option whose value is often not appreciated in clinical medicine. The importance of weighing the possibilities, having a second look at the lab test or at an imaging result, and finally suggesting to the patient that they should wait, is not easily understood. To refrain from performing a therapeutic procedure can appear to the patient or their relatives as not giving enough attention to a specific complaint or condition, sometimes even as outright carelessness or negligence. This is because medicine, in its most modern technological sense, embraces the myth of the medical doctor as an activist, hurrying to perform an urgent operation or implant a vital …
