Radiosurgery for venous angiomas

1993 ◽  
Vol 78 (4) ◽  
pp. 531-536 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christer Lindquist ◽  
Wan-Yio Guo ◽  
Bengt Karlsson ◽  
Ladislau Steiner

✓ Radiosurgical treatment with the gamma knife for venous angiomas was used as an alternative to microsurgical removal in order to avoid abrupt cessation of venous drainage, which may be shared by the venous angioma and important parts of the brain. Thirteen cases of venous angioma were treated between 1977 and 1991. In two cases cavernous angiomas were also present and in one case a distant arteriovenous malformation (AVM) was also found. In two cases the angioma shared the venous drainage with an adjoining AVM; this is the first description of such pathology. For venous angiomas irradiation was prescribed to cover at least the convergence of the medullary veins. For AVM's close to a venous angioma the treatment was exclusively prescribed to the AVM nidus. After treatment, complete obliteration of the venous angioma was observed in one case, partial obliteration was observed in three cases, and five venous angiomas were unaffected by the treatment. Undue effects of radiation occurred in four cases: one focal edema and three radionecroses. Extirpation of the radionecrotic tissue 6 months after radiosurgery was necessary in one case. In the other three cases, the venous angioma was observed to be completely or partially obliterated, or unaffected by the treatment (one case each). In two cases of combined AVM and venous angioma, complete obliteration of the treatment AVM nidus was obtained. It is concluded that radiosurgery for venous angioma, although conceptually attractive, still does not fulfill the rigid criteria of minimal risk which must be set for the treatment of a lesion with a benign natural history.

1971 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 537-543 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard A. Lende ◽  
Wolff M. Kirsch ◽  
Ralph Druckman

✓ Cortical removals which included precentral and postcentral facial representations resulted in relief of facial pain in two patients. Because of known failures following only postcentral (SmI) ablations, these operations were designed to eliminate also the cutaneous afferent projection to the precentral gyrus (MsI) and the second somatic sensory area (SmII). In one case burning pain developed after a stroke involving the brain stem and was not improved by total fifth nerve section; prompt relief followed corticectomy and lasted until death from heart disease 20 months later. In the other case persistent steady pain that developed after fifth rhizotomy for trigeminal neuralgia proved refractory to frontal lobotomy; relief after corticectomy was immediate and has lasted 14 months. Cortical localization was established by stimulation under local anesthesia. Each removal extended up to the border of the arm representation and down to the upper border of the insula. Such a resection necessarily included SmII, and in one case responses presumably from SmII were obtained before removal. The suggestions of Biemond (1956) and Poggio and Mountcastle (1960) that SmII might be concerned with pain sensibility may be pertinent in these cases.


1991 ◽  
Vol 75 (5) ◽  
pp. 715-722 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy B. Garner ◽  
O. Del Curling ◽  
David L. Kelly ◽  
D. Wayne Laster

✓ Cerebral venous angiomas are congenital anomalies of the intracranial venous drainage. Many believe that they are associated with a high risk of hemorrhage and neurological dysfunction, but newer neurodiagnostic imaging techniques are showing not only that they are more common than previously known but also that many have no associated symptoms. In this retrospective study, the natural history of venous angiomas was examined in 100 patients (48 males and 52 females) with radiographically identifiable lesions treated over a 14-year period. Information on the natural history of the lesion was obtained from clinical records and follow-up data. Imaging studies included angiography, computerized tomography, and magnetic resonance imaging. Angioma locations were classified as frontal (42 cases), parietal (24 cases), occipital (4 cases), temporal (2 cases), basal or ventricular (11 cases), cerebellar (14 cases), or brain stem (3 cases); 47 lesions were on the left side. Headache as a presenting symptom was common (36 patients) and often led to other radiographic studies, but this appeared to be related to the vascular lesion in only four patients. Other possibly related complications were hemorrhage in one patient, seizures in five, and transient focal deficits in eight. Fifteen patients had no neurological signs or symptoms. The mean patient age at last contact was 45.3 years (range 3 to 94 years). All patients have been managed without surgery. It is concluded that significant complications secondary to venous angiomas are infrequent and that surgical resection of these lesions and of surrounding brain is rarely indicated.


1989 ◽  
Vol 70 (6) ◽  
pp. 847-852 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas Chyatte

✓ Vascular malformations of the brain stem are unusual lesions that may pose a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge. Seven patients with vascular malformations involving the brain stem were evaluated; six were treated surgically, with complete obliteration of the lesion in five patients. In five patients symptoms developed only after a hemorrhage had occurred, and three of these suffered a rebleed before appropriate treatment was given. Angiography failed to demonstrate lesions in three cases, which did not appear to protect from repeat hemorrhage since two of the three rebled. There were no operative deaths, and no patients were made permanently worse after surgery. Useful recovery occurred commonly after appropriate treatment and appeared to be possible even in patients who had suffered a catastrophic neurological deficit at the time of presentation. These data indicate that surgical removal of the lesion may be warranted in some patients with symptomatic brain-stem vascular malformation.


1991 ◽  
Vol 75 (4) ◽  
pp. 512-524 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Dade Lunsford ◽  
Douglas Kondziolka ◽  
John C. Flickinger ◽  
David J. Bissonette ◽  
Charles A. Jungreis ◽  
...  

✓ Stereotactic radiosurgery successfully obliterates carefully selected arteriovenous malformations (AVM's) of the brain. In an initial 3-year experience using the 201-source cobalt-60 gamma knife at the University of Pittsburgh, 227 patients with AVM's were treated. Symptoms at presentation included prior hemorrhage in 143 patients (63%), headache in 104 (46%), and seizures in 70 (31%). Neurological deficits were present in 102 patients (45%). Prior surgical resection (resulting in subtotal removal) had been performed in 36 patients (16%). In 47 selected patients (21%), embolization procedures were performed in an attempt to reduce the AVM size prior to radiosurgery. The lesions were classified according to the Spetzler grading system: 64 (28%) were Grade VI (inoperable), 22 (10%) were Grade IV, 90 (40%) were Grade III, 43 (19%) were Grade II, and eight (4%) were Grade I. With the aid of computer imaging-integrated isodose plans for single-treatment irradiation, total coverage of the AVM nidus was possible in 216 patients (95%). The location and volume of the AVM were the most important factors for the selection of radiation dose. Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging was performed at 6-month intervals in 161 patients. Seventeen patients who had MR evidence of complete obliteration underwent angiography within 3 months of imaging: in 14 (82%) complete obliteration was confirmed. Complete angiographic obliteration was confirmed in 37 (80%) of 46 patients at 2 years, the earliest confirmation being 4 months (mean 17 months) after radiosurgery. The 2-year obliteration rates according to volume were: all eight (100%) AVM's less than 1 cu cm; 22 (85%) of 26 AVM's of 1 to 4 cu cm; and seven (58%) of 12 AVM's greater than 4 cu cm. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed postirradiation changes in 38 (24%) of 161 patients at a mean interval of 10.2 months after radiosurgery; only 10 (26%) of those 38 patients were symptomatic. In the entire series, two patients developed permanent new neurological deficits believed to be treatment-related. Two patients died of repeat hemorrhage at 6 and 23 months after treatment during the latency interval prior to obliteration. Stereotactic radiosurgery is an important method to obliterate AVM's, especially those previously considered inoperable. Success and complication risks are related to the AVM location and the volume treated.


1988 ◽  
Vol 69 (4) ◽  
pp. 535-539 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniele Rigamonti ◽  
Robert F. Spetzler ◽  
Burton P. Drayer ◽  
W. Michel Bojanowski ◽  
John Hodak ◽  
...  

✓ The magnetic resonance (MR) imaging appearance of venous malformations, all angiographically verified, was evaluated in 11 patients. A venous malformation is characteristically depicted as a tubular area of decreased signal intensity in the white matter of the brain. In one patient, a histologically verified cavernous malformation was also present with a characteristic mixed signal-intensity core on the T2-weighted MR images. Care should be used when evaluating venous angiomas to exclude the presence of a lesion with associated prominent venous drainage, such as a glioma.


2004 ◽  
Vol 101 (4) ◽  
pp. 690-693 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johann Peltier ◽  
Patrick Toussaint ◽  
Christine Desenclos ◽  
Daniel Le Gars ◽  
Herve Deramond

✓ The authors emphasize an unusual complication of venous angiomas in the brain: venous infarction. The patient in this case is a 32-year-old man who presented with a clinical history of headache followed by a worsening of his neurological status. Neuroimaging studies demonstrated a brain infarct in the posterior fossa, which was related to thrombosis of the draining vein of a cerebral venous angioma. A conservative treatment approach without anticoagulation therapy was followed and the patient completely recovered. Nonhemorragic venous infarction caused by thrombosis of a venous angioma is exceptional and only nine previous cases have been reported in the literature.


1973 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 398-401 ◽  
Author(s):  
John R. Clifford ◽  
Dean H. Echols

✓ Chromophobe adenomas rarely invade the brain without causing enlargement of the sella turcica and without compressing the optic nerves or chiasm. Such a case is reported, in which the patient made a complete recovery after surgical removal of the tumor. Five years later impaired vision in the other eye suggested recurrence of the adenoma. This time surgical intervention disclosed compression of the optic nerve by an atheromatous carotid artery.


1999 ◽  
Vol 90 (4) ◽  
pp. 695-701 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael K. Morgan ◽  
Lali H. S. Sekhon ◽  
Simon Finfer ◽  
Verity Grinnell

Object. The aim of this study was to analyze delayed neurological deficits following surgical resection of arteriovenous malformations (AVMs).Methods. The authors report on a consecutive series of 200 patients with angiographically proven AVMs of the brain that were surgically resected between January 1989 and June 1998. The 30-day mortality rate for patients in this series was 1%, with one death caused by AVM resection and one death attributed to basilar artery aneurysm repair following successful AVM resection. The Spetzler—Martin grading system correlated well with the difficulty of surgery. No permanent incidence of morbidity resulted from resection of Grade I or II AVMs; the percentage of patients with a significant neurological deficit due to resection was 7.8% for those with Grade III lesions and 33.3% for those with Grade IV or V AVMs. However, this grading system did not accurately predict the development of delayed neurological deficits.Ten patients (5%) developed delayed neurological deficits after recovering from anesthesia and surgery. The delayed deficit was due to hemorrhage in four of the 10 patients and all four had undergone resection of AVMs measuring at least 4 cm in diameter. An increase in blood pressure during the first 8 postoperative days precipitated hemorrhage in these patients. Edema arising as a consequence of propagated venous thrombosis (two patients) was associated with extensive venous drainage networks rather than large AVM niduses. Both hemorrhagic and edematous complications can be included under the umbrella term of “arterial-capillary-venous hypertensive syndrome” to describe the common underlying pathogenesis accurately. An additional four patients developed a delayed deficit as a result of vasospasm. Vasospasm occurred when resection had involved extensive dissection of proximal anterior and middle cerebral arteries; in such cases the incidence of vasospasm was 27%.Conclusions. On the basis of their analysis of these complications, the authors recommend strict blood pressure control for patients with lesions measuring 4 cm or more in diameter (particularly those with a deep arterial supply). Thromboprophylaxis with aspirin and heparin is prescribed for patients with extensive venous drainage networks, and prophylactic nimodipine therapy and angiographic surveillance for vasospasm are suggested for patients in whom extensive dissection of proximal anterior or middle cerebral arteries has been necessary.


1971 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 465-471 ◽  
Author(s):  
David L. Kelly ◽  
Jack Kushner ◽  
William T. McLean

✓ A case is reported of a newborn child whose predominant lesion was a metastatic choriocarcinoma of the brain. The outstanding features of the clinical course were repeated episodes of intracranial and subgaleal hemorrhage. Angiograms revealed large areas of pooling of contrast medium without neovascularization or rapid venous drainage. A review of the literature demonstrated the infrequency with which this lesion has been encountered.


1971 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 406-415 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl H. Gunderson ◽  
James Henry ◽  
Nathan Malamud

✓ Five patients are described with cerebral microglioma or reticulum cell sarcoma. The tumors varied from local neoplasms to multicentric or miliary foci. One of these patients is the second case reported of a microglioma associated with Waldenström's macroglobulinemia. Serum electrophoresis on the other four patients did not reveal any consistent abnormality or pattern. Immunoglobulin studies performed on three of the five patients confirmed Waldenström's syndrome in one, revealed an elevated IgA globulin in a second, and was normal in a third. Cerebrospinal fluid findings included elevated spinal fluid protein in all five patients. The brain scan was abnormal in all four cases so tested. Arteriograms in four patients demonstrated tumor blushes indicative of increased numbers of enlarged vessels. The relationship between reticulum cell sarcomas originating in the central nervous system and those originating elsewhere is discussed.


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