What are the treatments for arteriovenous malformations (AVMs)?

What are the treatments for arteriovenous malformations (AVMs)?

Treatment choices depend on the type, size and location of the AVM, risk of AVM rupture, your symptoms, your age and your general health. Ideally, the goal of treatment is to reduce the chance of bleeding or make it permanently go away. Surgery on your brain and spinal cord is serious, with risks including complications and death. Each person, and each person’s AVM, is unique and there aren’t any perfect decision-making tools in all cases. In general, though, treating an arteriovenous malformation as soon as possible is usually the best way to avoid serious complications.

One or more of these approaches might be tried:

• Surgery to remove the AVM. Surgery involves making a small incision near the AVM, sealing the surrounding arteries and veins so they don’t bleed, then surgically removing the AVM. Blood flow is redirected to normal blood vessels. Surgery is a cure of this condition.
• Embolization. In this procedure, a catheter is inserted into an artery in your groin and moved to the location of the AVM. Once there, a glue-like substance, coils or other substance is released into the AVM, which slows or stops the blood flow through the AVM. This approach is used when the AVMs are large and have a lot of blood flow through them. This way, they can be more easily removed with less risk of bleeding if surgery is performed immediately afterward. Embolization can also slow blood flow to reduce rupture if surgery isn’t immediately performed.
• Gamma knife radiosurgery. This approach uses highly focused beams of radiation that slowly shrink, scar and dissolve an AVM over a few years or make the AVM easier to remove with surgery.