ANGIOGRAPHIC DEMONSTRATION OF A SPINAL EPIDURAL ARTERIOVENOUS MALFORMATION - CASE-REPORT

A 16-year-old boy presented with acute midline thoracic pain followed by rapidly progressive paraplegia. The initial neurological examinatio n demonstrated a complete sensory and motor paraplegia, which signific antly improved spontaneously over the following 2 days. Magnetic reson ance imaging revealed a posterior epidural hematoma extending from the T-4 to T-6 vertebrae, and spinal angiography demonstrated an arteriov enous malformation (AVM) with a nidus of abnormal epidural vessels at the level of the T-5 vertebra, which was confirmed surgically. This ca se represents one of the first reports of a spinal epidural AVM confir med by angiography.