Profile of the brain arteriovenous malformation at National Brain Center hospital in 2015 – 2016: Epidemiological study

Abstract

Introduction: Brain arteriovenous malformation (AVM) is a congenital vascular lesion in which arterial blood flows directly into draining veins without capillary networking. The estimated incidence rate is approximately 1 case for 100,000 people a year. Clinical presentations are headache, seizure, neurological deficit, and others that are caused by space-occupying lesions. The treatment of brain AVM consists of microsurgery resection, embolization, stereotactic radiosurgery to conservative treatment. Methods: The design of the study was a descriptive non-analytical study. Data were taken from patients’ medical records, radiological records, and catheter lab data records at National Brain Center Hospital in 2015 – 2016. Results: There were 32 patients with AVM. The characteristics of brain AVM in our study were mostly men (62.5%), productive age ranging from 20 – 29 years (31.25%), manifested as seizure (43.75%), presence with Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score 15 (87.5%), and rupture of brain AVM nidus (59.38%). Conclusion: Brain AVM predominantly occurred at a young age and the management varied on the Spetzler-Martin grading. In addition, the likelihood of rupture was influenced by the characteristics of the lesion, such as size, age, location of the nidus, and history of rupture of brain AVM nidus.