Background and purpose: Although hemorrhagic strokes (HS) account for half of all strokes in children, rates and predictors of recurrent HS have not been studied.
Methods: We collected data on all documented cases of HS (intracerebral hemorrhage, subarachnoid hemorrhage, and intraventricular hemorrhage, except neonatal intraventricular hemorrhage), among 2.3 million children (<20 years) enrolled in a Northern Californian health maintenance organization from January 1993 to December 2004. Using Kaplan-Meier survival analyses censoring at death or loss to follow-up, we determined rates of recurrent HS. Log rank tests were used for bivariate comparisons.
Results: Among 116 children with atraumatic incident HS followed for a mean of 4.2 years, 11 had a recurrent HS at a median of 3.1 months (range 7 days to 5.7 years), yielding an overall 5-year cumulative recurrence rate (CRR) of 10% (95% CI, 58% to 18%). Sixty-four percent of recurrences were within the first 6 months. Whereas children with idiopathic HS (n=29) had no recurrences, children with structural lesions (vascular malformations or tumors) had a 5-year cumulative recurrence rate of 13% (95% CI, 7% to 25%; 9 recurrences among 71 children; P<0.05 compared with idiopathic). Children with medical etiologies (eg, thrombocytopenia, hypertension) had a 5-year cumulative recurrence rate of 13% (95% CI, 3% to 41%; 2 recurrences among 16 children), but the recurrences were within the first week.
Conclusions: Overall, 1 in 10 children with HS experienced a recurrence within 5 years, despite available therapies. Whereas idiopathic HS rarely recurred, and HS due to medical etiologies tended to recur acutely, children with structural lesions had a high and prolonged risk for recurrence.