Clinical–epidemiological characteristics and management of cerebral arteriovenous malformations at the Neurosurgery Service of the Instituto Nacional de Salud del Niño San Borja, 2015–2017

Abstract

Objetive: To describe the clinical-epidemiological characteristics and the management of Cerebral Arteriovenous Malformations (cAVM) in patients treated at the San Borja National Institute of Child Health (SB – NICH). Materials and methods: Retrospective, descriptive study of patients diagnosed with cAVM at the SB - NICH treated from 2015–2017. Data was processed and analyzed in the version 22 SPSS software. Qualitative variables were expressed in absolute and relative frequencies. Results: 41 cases of cAVM were identified, being more frequent in the group between 6-12 years of age (56.1%) and in the female sex (65.9%). Ruptured cAVM occurred in 56.7% of cases. Headache (92.7%) was the predominant clinical manifestation. The anatomical areas with the highest occurrence of cAMV were the frontal lobe (36.6%) and the left cerebral hemisphere (51.2%). The most common Spetzler-Martín grade was grade III (43.9%). The main treatment modality was embolization (39%). Mortality was 2.4%. Conclusions: The female sex and the 6 to 12-year-old group were the most frequent to suffer from cAVM. A little more than half had a ruptured cAVM. Headache is the predominant clinical manifestation of this disease. The most frequent Spetzler-Martin grade was grade III. Embolization is the most used surgical method. Mortality was low. Key words: Intracranial arteriovenous malformations, pediatrics, neurologic manifestations, neurosurgery, therapeutic embolization.