Palliatively treated cerebral arteriovenous malformations: follow-up results

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the benefits of palliative emboli sation of patients with inoperable intracranial AVMs. It involved the analy sis of the long-term clinical follow-up results of 27 patients with inopera ble intracranial AVMs, Sixteen patients were treated medically and 11 patie nts received partial embolisation. The mean size of the lesions was 7.2 +/- 2.6 cm, and the mean follow-up period was 99 +/- 44 months (range 52-192 m onths). There were no significant statistical differences in the sex, age, size, venous drainage pattern, location of the lesions or presented symptom s. The analysis of the long-term clinical follow-up results showed no signi ficant difference in either the risk of haemorrhage or clinical status of t he patients in the two treatment groups. Of the 16 patients in the medical treatment group, 8 (50%) showed a clinical improvement, 3 no improvement an d 5 (31%) deterioration. Of the 11 patients in the embolisation group, 5 (4 5.5%) showed clinical improvement, 3 no improvement and 3 (27.3%) deteriora tion (P = 0.871). Twenty-five percent (4 cases) of patients in the medical group and 45.5% (5 cases) of patients in the embolisation group suffered fr om haemorrhage during the follow-up period (P = 0.270). Complications relat ed to embolisation occurred in three cases. This comparative study shows th at palliative partial embolisation of intracranial AVMs, in all probability does not produce better clinical results than medical treatment. (C) 2000 Harcourt Publishers Ltd.