Combining endovascular and neurosurgical treatments of high-risk dural arteriovenous fistulas in the lateral sinus and the confluence of the sinuses

1999 ◽  
Vol 90 (2) ◽  
pp. 289-299 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katsuya Goto ◽  
Prijo Sidipratomo ◽  
Noboru Ogata ◽  
Toru Inoue ◽  
Haruo Matsuno

Object. The authors describe the use of a systemic approach to treat dural arteriovenous fistulas (DAVFs) in the lateral sinus and the confluence of sinuses in 17 patients who presented with signs and symptoms related to intracranial hemorrhage, infarction, and diffuse brain swelling.Methods. Angiographic examination revealed three different types of DAVFs in these high-risk patients: 1) extremely high flow DAVF not associated with sinus occlusion or leptomeningeal retrograde venous drainage (LRVD); 2) localized DAVF with exclusive LRVD and without sinus occlusion; and 3) diffuse DAVF with sinus occlusion and LRVD. Because of the complex nature of these lesions, the authors adopted a staged protocol in which they combined endovascular and surgical treatments.Conclusions. The authors believe that by close collaboration between endovascular therapists and vascular neurosurgeons, high-risk DAVFs in the lateral sinus and the confluence of sinuses can be successfully managed without treatment-related morbidity and mortality.

1998 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. E12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katsuya Goto ◽  
Prijo Sidipratomo ◽  
Noboru Ogata ◽  
Toru Inoue ◽  
Haruo Matsuno

The authors describe their experience in treating dural arteriovenous fistulas (DAVFs) in the lateral sinus and the confluence of sinuses in 17 patients who presented with signs and symptoms related to intracranial hemorrhage, infarction, and diffuse brain swelling. Angiographic examination revealed three different types of DAVFs in these high-risk patients: 1) extremely high flow DAVF not associated with sinus occlusion or leptomeningeal retrograde venous drainage (LRVD); 2) localized DAVF with exclusive LRVD and without sinus occlusion; and 3) diffuse DAVF with sinus occlusion and LRVD. Because of the complex nature of these lesions, the authors adopted a staged protocol in which they combined endovascular and surgical treatments. The authors believe that by close collaboration between endovascular therapists and vascular neurosurgeons, high-risk DAVFs in the lateral sinus and the confluence of sinuses can be successfully treated without treatment-related morbidity and mortality.


2002 ◽  
Vol 97 (4) ◽  
pp. 767-770 ◽  
Author(s):  
Junichiro Satomi ◽  
J. MARC C. van Dijk ◽  
Karel G. Terbrugge ◽  
Robert A. Willinsky ◽  
M. Christopher Wallace

Object. Cranial dural arteriovenous fistulas (DAVFs) can be classified into benign or aggressive, based on their patterns of venous drainage. A benign condition requires the absence of cortical venous drainage (CVD). The clinical and angiographic features of a consecutive single-center group of 117 patients harboring benign cranial DAVFs were evaluated over time to validate the behavior and appropriate management of these lesions. Methods. At the initial assessment four patients were asymptomatic. Two infants presented with congestive heart failure. All other patients presented with other benign symptoms: chronic headache, bruit, or orbital phenomena. Observational management was instituted in 73 patients (62%). Intolerable bruit or ophthalmological sequelae were deemed indications for palliative embolization in 43 patients and surgical treatment in one patient. A median follow-up period of 27.9 months (range 1 month—17.5 years) was available in 112 patients (95.7%), among whom repeated angiography was performed in 50. Overall, observational and palliative management resulted in a benign and tolerable level of disease in 110 (98.2%) of 112 cases. In two cases managed conservatively CVD developed. In both of these cases the conversion from benign to aggressive DAVF was associated with spontaneous progressive thrombosis of venous outlets. Conclusions. The disease course of a cranial DAVF without CVD is indeed benign, obviating the need for a cure of these lesions. Symptoms are well tolerated with either observation or palliative treatment. After a long-term follow-up review of 68 patients, this conservative management resulted in a benign and tolerable level of disease in 98.5% of cases. It is noteworthy, however, that a benign DAVF carries a 2% risk of developing CVD, mandating close clinical follow-up review in such cases and renewed radiological evaluation in response to any deterioration in the patient's condition.


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.


1998 ◽  
Vol 88 (3) ◽  
pp. 449-456 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shunro Endo ◽  
Naoya Kuwayama ◽  
Akira Takaku ◽  
Michiharu Nishijima

Object. The goal of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of direct packing of the isolated sinus (occluded both distally and proximally) in patients with dural arteriovenous fistulas (AVFs) of the transverse—sigmoid sinus. Methods. Eight patients were included in this study. There were seven men and one woman, ranging in age from 47 to 75 years (mean 60.4 years). Five patients presented with intracranial hemorrhage or venous infarction, one with convulsions, and two with pulsatile tinnitus. Prominent retrograde cortical venous drainage due to sinus isolation was angiographically demonstrated in all patients. All patients were treated by a small craniotomy and direct sinus packing with microcoils; the procedure was performed with the aid of digital subtraction angiography. Five patients were pretreated with transarterial embolization to reduce arterial inflow before the procedure, and intrasinus pressure and sinus blood gases were monitored throughout the operation. Postsurgery, the dural AVF was completely obliterated in all patients. The sinus pressure was 29 to 58% of systemic blood pressure, and sinus blood gas levels were purely arterial before packing. There was no morbidity related to direct sinus packing; however, one patient died as a result of acute myocardial infarction. Over a follow-up period ranging from 1 to 5 years, a faint asymptomatic dural AVF recurred in one patient on the cortex adjacent to the occluded sinus but regressed spontaneously within 1 year. Conclusions. Direct sinus packing was found to be highly effective for the treatment of dural AVFs that empty into the isolated sinus. Measurement of changes in sinus pressure and sinus blood gas levels was useful for monitoring the progress of direct sinus packing.


1995 ◽  
Vol 82 (2) ◽  
pp. 196-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
John K. B. Afshar ◽  
John L. Doppman ◽  
Edward H. Oldfield

✓ To establish if interruption of the intradural draining spinal vein or surgical excision are curative treatments for spinal dural arteriovenous fistulas (AVFs), the medical records and radiographic studies of 19 patients with spinal dural AVFs and progressive myelopathy were reviewed. Spinal arteriograms were obtained before and within 2 weeks after surgery in 19 patients, and after a delay of 4 months or more in 11 patients. The mean clinical and arteriographic follow up was at 37 and 35 months, respectively. In the 11 patients who underwent excision of the dural AVF there was no evidence of a residual lesion upon immediate or delayed postoperative arteriography. Surgery in eight patients consisted of simple interruption of the intradural draining vein as it entered the subarachnoid space. In six of these patients the vein draining the AVF intrathecally provided the only venous drainage of the AVF. In these six patients there was no immediate (six of six) or delayed (four of six) arteriographic evidence of residual or recurrent flow through the AVF. Two patients had an AVF with both intra- and extradural venous drainage; after intradural division of the draining vein there was residual flow through the AVF into the extradural venous system. In one of these two patients intrathecal venous drainage was reestablished, which required additional therapy. In the other patient the extradural AVF spontaneously thrombosed and was not evident on delayed follow-up arteriography. In patients with spinal dural AVFs with only intrathecal medullary venous drainage, which includes most patients with these lesions, surgical interruption of the intradural draining vein provides lasting and curative treatment. In patients with both intra- and extradural drainage of the AVF, complete excision of the fistula or interruption of the intra- and extradural venous drainage of the fistula is indicated. In patients in whom a common vessel supplies the spinal cord and the dural AVF, simple surgical interruption of the vein draining the AVF is the treatment of choice, as it provides lasting obliteration of the fistula and it is the only treatment that does not risk arterial occlusion and cord infarction. Simple interruption of the venous drainage of a spinal dural AVF provides lasting occlusion of the fistula, as it does for cranial dural AVFs, if all pathways of venous drainage are interrupted. This result provides further evidence that the venous approach to the treatment of dural AVFs can be used successfully.


2003 ◽  
Vol 98 (3) ◽  
pp. 498-506 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Kim Nelson ◽  
Stephen M. Russell ◽  
Henry H. Woo ◽  
Anthony J. G. Alastra ◽  
Danko V. Vidovich

Object. The aim of this study was to describe the application of a novel transarterial approach to curative embolization of complex intracranial dural arteriovenous fistulas (DAVFs). This technique is particularly useful in patients harboring high-grade DAVFs with direct cortical venous drainage or for whom transvenous coil embolization is not possible because of limited sinus venous access to the fistula site due to thrombosis or stenotic changes. Methods. Twenty-three DAVFs in 21 patients were treated using a transarterial N-butyl cyanoacrylate (NBCA) embolization technique with the aid of a wedged catheter. In all patients, definitive treatment involved two critical steps: 1) a microcatheter was wedged within a feeding artery, establishing flow-arrest conditions within the catheterized vessel distal to the microcatheter tip; and 2) NBCA was injected under these resultant flow-arrest conditions across the pathological arteriovenous connection and into the immediate draining venous apparatus, definitively occluding the fistula. Patient data were collected in a retrospective manner by reviewing office and inpatient charts and embolization reports, and by directly analyzing all procedural and diagnostic angiograms. Eight patients presented with the principal complaint of tinnitus/bruit, five with intracranial hemorrhage, four with cavernous sinus syndrome, and one each with seizures, ataxia, visual field loss, and hiccups. The parent (recipient) venous structure of the DAVFs in this study included 11 leptomeningeal veins, eight transverse/sigmoid sinuses, three cavernous sinuses, and one sphenoparietal sinus. The NBCA permeated the arteriovenous shunt, perifistulous network, and proximal draining vein in all DAVFs. Occlusion was confirmed on postembolization angiography studies. No complication occurred in any patient in this series. There has been no recurrence during a mean follow up of 18.7 months (range 2–46 months). Conclusions. Transarterial NBCA embolization with the aid of a wedged catheter in flow-arrest conditions is a safe and an effective treatment for intracranial DAVFs.


2001 ◽  
Vol 94 (6) ◽  
pp. 886-891 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan A. Friedman ◽  
Bruce E. Pollock ◽  
Douglas A. Nichols ◽  
Deborah A. Gorman ◽  
Robert L. Foote ◽  
...  

Object. Most dural arteriovenous fistulas (DAVFs) of the transverse and sigmoid sinuses do not have angiographically demonstrated features associated with intracranial hemorrhage and, therefore, may be treated nonsurgically. The authors report their experience using a staged combination of radiosurgery and transarterial embolization for treating DAVFs involving the transverse and sigmoid sinuses. Methods. Between 1991 and 1998, 25 patients with DAVFs of the transverse and/or sigmoid sinuses were treated using stereotactic radiosurgery; 22 of these patients also underwent transarterial embolization. Two patients were lost to follow-up review. Clinical data, angiographic findings, and follow-up records for the remaining 23 patients were collected prospectively. The mean duration of clinical follow up after radiosurgery was 50 months (range 20–99 months). The 18 women and five men included in this series had a mean age of 57 years (range 33–79 years). Twenty-two (96%) of 23 patients presented with pulsatile tinnitus as the primary symptom; two patients had experienced an earlier intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH). Cognard classifications of the DAVFs included the following: I in 12 patients (52%), IIa in seven patients (30%), and III in four patients (17%). After treatment, symptoms resolved (20 patients) or improved significantly (two patients) in 96% of patients. One patient was clinically unchanged. No patient sustained an ICH or irradiation-related complication during the follow-up period. Seventeen patients underwent follow-up angiographic studies at a mean of 21 months after radiosurgery (range 11–38 months). Total or near-total obliteration (> 90%) was seen in 11 patients (65%), and more than a 50% reduction in six patients (35%). Two patients experienced recurrent tinnitus and underwent repeated radiosurgery and embolization at 21 and 38 months, respectively, after the first procedure. Conclusions. A staged combination of radiosurgery and transarterial embolization provides excellent symptom relief and a good angiographically verified cure rate for patients harboring low-risk DAVFs of the transverse and sigmoid sinuses. This combined approach is a safe and effective treatment strategy for patients without angiographically determined risk factors for hemorrhage and for elderly patients with significant comorbidities.


2001 ◽  
Vol 94 (5) ◽  
pp. 831-835 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan A. Friedman ◽  
Fredric B. Meyer ◽  
Douglas A. Nichols ◽  
Robert J. Coffey ◽  
L. Nelson Hopkins ◽  
...  

✓ The authors report the case of a man who suffered from progressive, disseminated posttraumatic dural arteriovenous fistulas (DAVFs) resulting in death, despite aggressive endovascular, surgical, and radiosurgical treatment. This 31-year-old man was struck on the head while playing basketball. Two weeks later a soft, pulsatile mass developed at his vertex, and the man began to experience pulsatile tinnitus and progressive headaches. Magnetic resonance imaging and subsequent angiography revealed multiple AVFs in the scalp, calvaria, and dura, with drainage into the superior sagittal sinus. The patient was treated initially with transarterial embolization in five stages, followed by vertex craniotomy and surgical resection of the AVFs. However, multiple additional DAVFs developed over the bilateral convexities, the falx, and the tentorium. Subsequent treatment entailed 15 stages of transarterial embolization; seven stages of transvenous embolization, including complete occlusion of the sagittal sinus and partial occlusion of the straight sinus; three stages of stereotactic radiosurgery; and a second craniotomy with aggressive disconnection of the DAVFs. Unfortunately, the fistulas continued to progress, resulting in diffuse venous hypertension, multiple intracerebral hemorrhages in both hemispheres, and, ultimately, death nearly 5 years after the initial trauma. Endovascular, surgical, and radiosurgical treatments are successful in curing most patients with DAVFs. The failure of multimodal therapy and the fulminant progression and disseminated nature of this patient's disease are unique.


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.


2009 ◽  
Vol 26 (5) ◽  
pp. E14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory J. Zipfel ◽  
Manish N. Shah ◽  
Daniel Refai ◽  
Ralph G. Dacey ◽  
Colin P. Derdeyn

This article presents a modification to the existing classification scales of intracranial dural arteriovenous fistulas based on newly published research regarding the relationship of clinical symptoms and outcome. The 2 commonly used scales, the Borden-Shucart and Cognard scales, rely entirely on angiographic features for categorization. The most critical anatomical feature is the identification of cortical venous drainage (CVD; Borden-Shucart Types II and III and Cognard Types IIb, IIa + b, III, IV, and V), as this feature identifies lesions at high risk for future hemorrhage or ischemic neurological injury. Yet recent data has emerged indicating that within these high-risk groups, most of the risk for future injury is in the subgroup presenting with intracerebral hemorrhage or nonhemorrhagic neurological deficits. The authors have defined this subgroup as symptomatic CVD. Patients who present incidentally or with symptoms of pulsatile tinnitus or ophthalmological phenomena have a less aggressive clinical course. The authors have defined this subgroup as asymptomatic CVD. Based on recent data the annual rate of intracerebral hemorrhage is 7.4–7.6% for patients with symptomatic CVD compared with 1.4–1.5% for those with asymptomatic CVD. The addition of asymptomatic CVD or symptomatic CVD as modifiers to the Borden-Shucart and Cognard systems improves their accuracy for risk stratification of patients with high-grade dural arteriovenous fistulas.


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