Abstract
In December of 2016, a Consensus Conference on unruptured AVM treatment, involving 24 members of the three European societies dealing with the treatment of cerebral AVMs (EANS, ESMINT, and EGKS) was held in Milan, Italy. The panel made the following statements and general recommendations: (1) Brain arteriovenous malformation (AVM) is a complex disease associated with potentially severe natural history; (2) The results of a randomized trial (ARUBA) cannot be applied equally for all unruptured brain arteriovenous malformation (uBAVM) and for all treatment modalities; (3) Considering the multiple treatment modalities available, patients with uBAVMs should be evaluated by an interdisciplinary neurovascular team consisting of neurosurgeons, neurointerventionalists, radiosurgeons, and neurologists experienced in the diagnosis and treatment of brain AVM; (4) Balancing the risk of hemorrhage and the associated restrictions of everyday activities related to untreated unruptured AVMs against the risk of treatment, there are sufficient indications to treat unruptured AVMs grade 1 and 2 (Spetzler–Martin); (5) There may be indications for treating patients with higher grades, based on a case-to-case consensus decision of the experienced team; (6) If treatment is indicated, the primary strategy should be defined by the multidisciplinary team prior to the beginning of the treatment and should aim at complete eradication of the uBAVM; (7) After having considered the pros and cons of a randomized trial vs. a registry, the panel proposed a prospective European Multidisciplinary Registry.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abecassis IJ, Xu DS, Batjer HH, Bendok BR (2014) Natural history of brain arteriovenous malformations: a systematic review. Neurosurg Focus
Abla AA, Rutledge WC, Seymour ZA, Guo D, Kim H, Gupta N, Sneed PK, Barani IJ, Larson D, McDer-mott MW, Lawton MT (2015) A treatment paradigm for high-grade brain arteriovenous malformations: volume-staged radiosurgical downgrading followed by microsurgical resection. J Neurosurg 122(2):419–432
Bervini D, Morgan MK, Ritson EA, Heller G (2014) Surgery for unruptured arteriovenous malformations of the brain is better than conservative management for selected cases: a prospective cohort study. J Neurosurg 121(4):878–890
Burrow AM, Link MJ, Pollock BE (2014) Is stereotactic radiosurgery the best treatment option for patients with a radiosurgery-based arteriovenous malformation score ≤ 1? World Neurosurg 82(6):1144
Cenzato M, Delitala A, Delfini R, Pasqualin A, Maira G, Esposito V, Tomasello F, Boccardi E (2016) Position statement from the Italian Society of Neurosurgery on the ARUBA study. J Neurosurg Sci 60(1):126–130
Davies JM, Yanamadala V, Lawton MT (2012) Comparative effectiveness of treatments for cerebral arteriovenous malformations: trends in nationwide outcomes from 2000 to 2009. Neurosurg Focus 33(1), E11
Ding D, Starke RM, Kano H, Lee JY, Mathieu D, Pierce J, Huang PP, Feliciano C, Rodriguez-Mercado R, Almodovar L, Grills IS, Silva D, Abbassy M, Missios S, Kondziolka D, Barnett GH, Lunsford LD, Sheehan JP (2017) Stereotactic radiosurgery for Spetzler–Martin grade III arteriovenous malformations: an international multicenter study. J Neurosurg 15:1–13
Du R, Keyoung HM, Dowd CF, Young WL, Lawton MT (2007) The effects of diffuseness and deep perforating artery supply on outcomes after microsurgical resection of brain arteriovenous malformations. Neurosurgery 60(4):638–646
El-Ghanem M, Kass-Hout T, Kass-Hout O, Alderazi YJ, Amuluru K, Al-Mufti F, Prestigiacomo CJ, Gan-dhi CD (2016) Arteriovenous malformations in the pediatric population: review of the existing literature. Interv Neurol 5(3–4):218–225
Hernesniemi JA, Dashti R, Juvela S, Väärt K, Niemelä M, Laakso A (2008) Natural history of brain arteriovenous malformations: a long-term follow-up study of risk of hemorrhage in 238 patients. Neurosurgery 63:823–831
Hong CS, Peterson EC, Ding D, Sur S, Hasan D, Dumont AS, Chalouhi N, Jabbour P, Starke RM (2016) Intervention for a randomized trial of unruptured brain arteriovenous malformations (ARUBA)—eligible patients: an evidence-based review. Clin Neurol Neurosurg 150:133–138
Javadpour M, Al-Mahfoudh R, Mitchell PS, Kirollos R (2016) Outcome of microsurgical excision of unruptured brain arteriovenous malformations in ARUBA-eligible patients. Br J Neurosurg 30(6):619–622
Kano H, Lunsford LD, Flickinger JC, Yang HC, Flannery TJ, Awan NR, Niranjan A, Novotny J Jr, Kon-dziolka D (2012) Stereotactic radiosurgery for arteriovenous malformations, part 1: management of Spetzler–Martin grade I and II arteriovenous malformations. J Neurosurg 116(1):11–20
Korja M, Bervini D, Assaad N, Morgan MK (2014) Role of surgery in the management of brain arteriovenous malformations prospective cohort study. Stroke 45:3549–3555
Laakso A, Dashti R, Juvela S, Isarakul P, Niemelä M, Hernesniemi J (2011) Risk of hemorrhage in patients with untreated Spetzler–Martin grade IV and V arteriovenous malformations: a long-term follow-up study in 63 patients. Neurosurgery 68(2):372–377, discussion 378
Laakso A, Dashti R, Seppänen J, Juvela S, Väärt K, Niemelä M, Sankila R, Hernesniemi JA (2008) Long-term excess mortality in 623 patients with brain arteriovenous malformations. Neurosurgery 63(2):244–253
Lawton MT, Kim H, McCulloch CE, Mikhak B, Young WL (2010) A supplementary grading scale for selecting patients with brain arteriovenous malformations for surgery. Neurosurgery 66(4):702–713
Magro E, Gentric JC, Darsaut TE, Ziegler D, Bojanowski MW, Raymond J (2017) Responses to ARUBA: a systematic review and critical analysis for the design of future arteriovenous malformation trials. J Neurosurg 126(2):486–494
Martin NA, Khanna R, Doberstein C, Bentson J (2000) Therapeutic embolization of arteriovenous malformations: the case for and against. Clin Neurosurg 46:295–318
Meling TR, Proust F, Gruber A, Niemela M, Regli L, Roche PH, Vajkoczy P (2014) On apples, oranges, and ARUBA. Acta Neurochir 156(9):1775–1779
Mine S, Hirai S, Ono J, Yamaura A (2000) Risk factors for poor outcome of untreated arteriovenous malformations. J Clin Neurosci 7(6):503–506
Miyamoto S, Hashimoto N, Nagata I, Nozaki K, Morimoto M, Taki W, Kikuchi H (2000) Posttreatment sequelae of palliatively treated cerebral arteriovenous malformations. Neurosurgery 46:589–594
Mohr JP, Parides MK, Stapf C, Moquete E, Moy CS, Overbey JR, Al-Shahi Salman R, Vicaut E, Young WL, Houdart E, Cordonnier C, Stefani MA, Hartmann A, von Kummer R, Biondi A, Berkefeld J, Klijn CJ, Harkness K, Libman R, Barreau X, Moskowitz AJ (2014) Medical management with or without interventional therapy for unruptured brain arteriovenous malformations (ARUBA): a multicentre, non-blinded, randomised trial. Lancet 383(9917):614–621
Moon K, Levitt MR, Almefty RO, Nakaji P, Albuquerque FC, Zabramski JM, Wanebo JE, McDougall CG, Spetzler RF (2015) Safety and efficacy of surgical resection of unruptured low-grade arteriovenous malformations from the modern decade. Neurosurgery 77(6):948–952
Moosa S, Chen CJ, Ding D, Lee CC, Chivukula S, Starke RM, Yen CP, Xu Z, Sheehan JP (2014) Volume-staged versus dose-staged radiosurgery outcomes for large intracranial arteriovenous malformations. Neurosurg Focus 37(3), E18
Morgan MK, Wiedmann M, Assaad NN, Heller GZ (2016) Complication-effectiveness analysis for brain arteriovenous malformation surgery: a prospective cohort study. Neurosurgery 79(1):47–57
Nagy G, Grainger A, Hodgson TJ, Rowe JG, Coley SC, Kemeny AA, Radatz MW (2016) Staged-volume radiosurgery of large arteriovenous malformations improves outcome by reducing the rate of adverse radiation effects. Neurosurgery. 80(2):180–192
Niazi TN, Klimo P Jr, Anderson RC, Raffel C (2010) Diagnosis and management of arteriovenous malformations in children. Neurosurg Clin N Am 21(3):443–456
Pasqualin A, Barone G, Cioffi F, Rosta L, Scienza R, Da Pian R (1991) The relevance of anatomic and hemodynamic factors to a classification of cerebral arteriovenous malformations. Neurosurgery 28(3):370–379
Potts MB, Lau D, Abla AA, Kim H, Young WL, Lawton MT (2015) Current surgical results with low-grade brain arteriovenous malformations. J Neurosurg 122(4):912–920
Rutledge WC, Abla AA, Nelson J, Halbach VV, Kim H, Lawton MT (2014) Treatment and outcomes of ARU-BA-eligible patients with unruptured brain arteriovenous malformations at a single institution. Neurosurg Focus. 37(3)
Sanchez Mejia RO, Chennupati SK, Gupta N, Fullerton H, Young WL, Lawton MT (2006) Superior outcomes in children compared with adults after microsurgical resection of brain arteriovenous malformations. J Neurosurg 105(2 Suppl):82–87
Schramm J, Schaller K, Esche J, Boström A (2016) Microsurgery for cerebral arteriovenous malformations: subgroup outcomes in a consecutive series of 288 cases. J Neurosurg 10:1–8
Seymour ZA, Sneed PK, Gupta N, Lawton MT, Molinaro AM, Young WL, Dowd CF, Halbach VV, Hi-gashida RT, McDermott MW (2016) Volume-staged radiosurgery for large arteriovenous malformations: an evolving paradigm. J Neurosurg 124(1):163–174
Spetzler RF, Martin NA (1986) A proposed grading system for arteriovenous malformations. J Neurosurg 65(4):476–483
Spetzler RF, Ponce FA (2011) A 3-tier classification of cerebral arteriovenous malformations. J Neurosurg 114:842–849
Starke RM, Kano H, Ding D, Lee JY, Mathieu D, Whitesell J, Pierce JT, Huang PP, Kondziolka D, Yen CP, Feliciano C, Rodgriguez-Mercado R, Almodovar L, Pieper DR, Grills IS, Silva D, Abbassy M, Missios S, Barnett GH, Lunsford LD, Sheehan JP (2017) Stereotactic radiosurgery for cerebral arteriovenous malformations: evaluation of long-term outcomes in a multicenter cohort. J Neurosurg 126(1):36–44
Starke RM, Komotar RJ, Hwang BY, Fischer LE, Otten ML, Merkow MB, Garrett MC, Isaacson SR, Connolly ES Jr (2008) A comprehensive review of radiosurgery for cerebral arteriovenous malformations: outcomes, predictive factors, and grading scales. Stereotact Funct Neurosurg 86(3):191–199
van Beijnum J, van der Worp HB, Buis DR, Al-Shahi Salman R, Kappelle LJ, Rinkel GJ, van der Spren-kel JW, Vandertop WP, Algra A, Klijn CJ (2011) Treatment of brain arteriovenous malformations: a systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA 306:2011–2019. doi:10.1001/jama.2011.1632
Wong J, Slomovic A, Ibrahim G, Radovanovic I, Tymianski M (2017) Microsurgery for ARUBA trial (a randomized trial of unruptured brain arteriovenous malformation)-eligible unruptured brain arteriovenous malformations. Stroke 48(1):136–144
Acknowledgments
We gratefully acknowledge the financial support by B. Braun that offered an unrestricted educational grant.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflicts of interest
None.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Cenzato, M., Boccardi, E., Beghi, E. et al. European consensus conference on unruptured brain AVMs treatment (Supported by EANS, ESMINT, EGKS, and SINCH). Acta Neurochir 159, 1059–1064 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00701-017-3154-8
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00701-017-3154-8