The role of radiosurgery and particulate embolization in the treatment of dural arteriovenous fistulas

1996 ◽  
Vol 84 (5) ◽  
pp. 804-809 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Link ◽  
Robert J. Coffey ◽  
Douglas A. Nichols ◽  
Deborah A. Gorman

✓ Over the past 5 years 29 patients with dural arteriovenous fistulas (AVFs) were treated by the authors using the Leksell radiosurgical gamma knife unit. Within 2 days after radiosurgery, 17 patients with AVFs that exhibited retrograde pial or cortical venous drainage (12 patients) and/or produced intractable bruit (eight patients) underwent particulate embolization of external carotid feeding vessels. The rationale for this treatment strategy was that radiosurgery was expected to cause obliteration of most fistulas after 12 to 36 months. In patients with bruit, ocular symptoms, or in those at risk for hemorrhage, treatment with embolization after radiosurgery kept the fistulas angiographically visible for radiosurgical targeting yet offered palliation of symptoms and temporary, partial protection from hemorrhage during the latency period. In 12 patients, preobliteration embolization immediately reduced (10 patients) or eliminated (two patients) retrograde pial venous drainage. To date, no lesion has hemorrhaged after treatment. Angiography 1 to 3 years posttreatment in 18 patients showed total obliteration of 13 fistulas (72%) and partial obliteration of five (28%). Radiosurgery, followed by embolization when retrograde pial venous drainage, intractable bruit, and/or major external carotid artery supply is present, appears to be a promising treatment for selected patients with symptomatic dural AVFs.

2002 ◽  
Vol 96 (1) ◽  
pp. 76-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Marc C. Van Dijk ◽  
Karel G. TerBrugge ◽  
Robert A. Willinsky ◽  
M. Christopher Wallace

Object. Dural arteriovenous fistulas (AVFs) are a well-known pathoanatomical and clinical entity. Excluding bilateral involvement of the cavernous sinus, multiple dural AVFs are rare, with isolated reports in the literature. The additional risk associated with multiplicity is unknown, although it has been claimed that there is a greater risk of hemorrhage at presentation. In a group of 284 patients with dural AVFs consecutively treated at a single center, the occurrence of multiplicity is investigated and its risk factors for hemorrhage are identified. Methods. Among the 284 patients with both cranial and spinal dural AVFs, 20 patients with multiple fistulas were found. Nineteen (8.1%) of 235 patients with cranial AVFs had multiple cranial fistulas, and one (2%) of 49 patients with spinal AVFs harbored two spinal fistulas. Twelve patients were found to have a lesion at two separate sites, seven patients had them at three locations, and one patient had four fistulas, each at a different site. In the subgroup with multiple AVFs the percentage of hemorrhage at presentation was three times higher than in the entire group (p = 0.01). Cortical venous drainage in cranial fistulas was present in 84% of patients with multiple lesions compared with 46% of patients with solitary lesions (p < 0.005). Conclusions. Multiple dural AVFs are not rare. In this group of 284 patients it was found in 8.1% of all patients with cranial dural AVFs. Multiplicity was associated with a higher percentage of cortical venous drainage, a pattern of drainage reportedly yielding a higher risk for hemorrhage.


2001 ◽  
Vol 94 (4) ◽  
pp. 630-632 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hiro Kiyosue ◽  
Shuichi Tanoue ◽  
Mika Okahara ◽  
Miyuki Mori ◽  
Hiromu Mori

✓ The hypoglossal canals are an unusual location for dural arteriovenous fistulas (AVFs) to appear. One previous report of dural AVFs involving the hypoglossal canal has been published. In the present paper, the authors describe a dural AVF within the hypoglossal canal, which presented with ocular symptoms and was successfully treated by selective transvenous embolization. Magnetic resonance imaging and contralateral carotid arteriography were useful for determination of the exact location of the fistulous pouch, which was later packed with coils. Selective transvenous coil embolization with careful assessment of the location and pattern of the venous drainage of the dural AVF is a safe and effective treatment.


2002 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.J.P. Goddard ◽  
M.S. Khangure

Dural arteriovenous fistulas are most probably acquired lesions. However, they have been rarely encountered de novo. We present a unique case of a 71-year-old woman who initially presented with right-sided dural arteriovenous fistula (DAVF), which spontaneously resolved after diagnostic arteriography. She later developed asymptomatic occlusion of the left transverse sinus. Five years after her initial presentation she developed left-sided pulse-synchronous tinnitus. MRA and catheter angiography showed a complex type IV DAVF between the left transverse sinus and multiple dural branches arising from both left and right external carotid arteries. The left transverse sinus was isolated from the torcula herophili, with stenosis of the sigmoid sinus. Extensive cortical venous drainage was demonstrated. Endovascular cure was effected by polyvinyl alcohol particle and absolute alcohol occlusion of the dominant dural supply, and transvenous coil occlusion of the left transverse sinus. The patient's symptoms resolved almost immediately. This unique case demonstrates that dural sinus occlusion and DAVFs may co-exist, but there may not be a causal relationship. It is likely that both DAVFs and sinus occlusion are manifestations of the same disease process characterised by a pro-thrombotic state and secondary angiogenesis. It is important to recognise that changes in symptomatology, even long after apparent disappearance of a lesion may indicate recurrence, and careful follow up is advocated.


2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 212-216
Author(s):  
K. Kono ◽  
M. Mori ◽  
Y. Wakugawa ◽  
M. Yasaka ◽  
Y. Okada ◽  
...  

Carotid duplex sonography is a useful method for evaluation of dural arteriovenous fistulas. The resistance index of the external carotid artery has been reported to correlate with the efficacy of treatment and recurrence or aggravation of dural arteriovenous fistulas. Herein, we describe a case of dural arteriovenous fistulas mainly supplied by the occipital artery and show that the resistance index of the occipital artery was more sensitive than that of the external carotid artery. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report to describe the feasibility of occipital artery detection by carotid duplex sonography and clinical application of the resistance index of the occipital artery for dural arteriovenous fistulas.


1991 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stanley L. Barnwell ◽  
Van V. Halbach ◽  
Christopher F. Dowd ◽  
Randall T. Higashida ◽  
Grant B. Hieshima ◽  
...  

✓ Dural arteriovenous (AV) fistulas are thought to be acquired lesions that form in an area of thrombosis within a sinus. If the sinus remains completely thrombosed, venous drainage from these lesions occurs through cortical veins, or, if the sinus is open, venous drainage is usually into the involved sinus. Among 105 patients with dural A V fistulas evaluated over the the past 5 years, seven had a unique type of dural AV fistula in the superior sagittal, transverse, or straight sinus in which only cortical venous drainage occurred despite a patent involved sinus; the fistula was located within the wall of a patent dural sinus, but outflow was not into the involved sinus. This variant of dural AV fistulas puts the patient at serious risk for hemorrhage or neurological dysfunction caused by venous hypertension. Three patients presented with hemorrhage, one with progressive neurological dysfunction, one with seizures, and two with bruit and headaches. A combination of surgical and endovascular techniques was used to close the fistula while preserving flow through the sinus.


Medicine ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 97 (19) ◽  
pp. e0697 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ji Hee Kang ◽  
Tae Jin Yun ◽  
Jong Kook Rhim ◽  
Young Dae Cho ◽  
Dong Hyun Yoo ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 130 (3) ◽  
pp. 972-976 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel A. Tonetti ◽  
Bradley A. Gross ◽  
Brian T. Jankowitz ◽  
Hideyuki Kano ◽  
Edward A. Monaco ◽  
...  

OBJECTIVEAggressive dural arteriovenous fistulas (dAVFs) with cortical venous drainage (CVD) are known for their relatively high risk of recurrent neurological events or hemorrhage. However, recent natural history literature has indicated that nonaggressive dAVFs with CVD have a significantly lower prospective risk of hemorrhage. These nonaggressive dAVFs are typically diagnosed because of symptomatic headache, pulsatile tinnitus, or ocular symptoms, as in low-risk dAVFs. Therefore, the viability of stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) as a treatment for this lesion subclass should be investigated.METHODSThe authors evaluated their institutional experience with SRS for dAVFs with CVD for the period from 1991 to 2016, assessing angiographic outcomes and posttreatment hemorrhage rates. They subsequently pooled their results with those published in the literature and stratified the results based on the mode of clinical presentation.RESULTSIn an institutional cohort of 42 dAVFs with CVD treated using SRS, there were no complications or hemorrhages after treatment in 19 patients with nonaggressive dAVFs, but there was 1 radiation-induced complication and 1 hemorrhage among the 23 patients with aggressive dAVFs. In pooling these cases with 155 additional cases from the literature, the authors found that the hemorrhage rate after SRS was significantly lower among the patients with nonaggressive dAVFs (0% vs 6.8%, p = 0.003). Similarly, the number of radiation-related complications was 0/124 in nonaggressive dAVF cases versus 6/73 in aggressive dAVF cases (p = 0.001). The annual rate of hemorrhage after SRS for aggressive fistulas was 3.0% over 164.5 patient-years, whereas none of the nonaggressive fistulas bled after radiosurgery over 279.4 patient-years of follow-up despite the presence of CVD.CONCLUSIONSCortical venous drainage is thought to be a significant risk factor in all dAVFs. In the institutional experience described here, SRS proved to be a low-risk strategy associated with a very low risk of subsequent hemorrhage or radiation-related complications in nonaggressive dAVFs with CVD.


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