Outcome of Endovascular Treatment of Cerebral Arteriovenous Malformations with Ethylene Vinyl Alcohol Coploymer

Abstract

Background: Cerebral AVMs are very rare lesions, and this rarity contributes to the difficulty of treating them. There is no consensus concerning the method of treatment to be chosen among neurosurgery, radiosurgery or embolization. Onyx embolization could serve as a curative option with accepted morbidity and mortality. The introduction of Onyx and of catheters with detachable tips has no doubt increased the rate of endovascular occlusion, and decreased the risks associated with treatment in our experience. Objective: The aim of the study was to assess the outcome of the use of Onyx in the treatment of intracranial AVMs as curative embolization or before neuro- or radiosurgery Patients and Methods: This analytical prospective study was conducted on 25 patients who were diagnosed with cerebral arteriovenous malformations and underwent endovascular embolization with EVOH copolymer with curative intent during the study period. Interventional procedures were done in the neuro –endovascular unit, neurosurgery department Ain Shams University Hospitals and associate neuroendovascular unit in El Matarya Teaching Hospital in the period between September 2014 and April 2017. Results: Actually comparing these results especially concerning the cure rate along with other studies was somewhat confusing and problematic owing to the diversity in results between studies across the last 15 years. Conclusion: For the cases that are not fulfilling these criteria, embolization should be offered as preparing step for other modality of treatment. In our experience, for curative embolization, the AVM should be small sized (< 3 cm), supplied by one vascular territory, with feeders that can tolerate reflux up to 2–3 cm, with clear proximal parts of the draining veins, and not located in deep structures.