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Dr Prem Rangi
Queen Square Private Healthcare
How does an arteriovenous malformation or AVM differ from a brain aneurysm?
Arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) are an abnormal connection between arteries and veins whereas aneurysms are ballooning and pooling of blood in blood vessel walls according to Dr Prem Rangi, a Consultant in Interventional and diagnostic neuroradiology at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery at Queen Square.
Transcript
So AVMs are very different to aneurysms. So an AVM is essentially a network of vessels communicating between an artery and a vein, bypassing the capillary bed. AVMs can present in a number of ways. The most worrisome of which is a haemorrhage. And they can present with local mass effect. They can present with headaches, seizures, otherwise. And the treatments are complex. Conservative treatment in the first instance to let the haematoma, the blood clot around a ruptured AVM settle is advocated in the first instance. Treatments can be both surgical and avascular with gamma knife.
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