Retroperitoneal Vascular Diseases

Abstract

Clinically significant arterial venous malformations (AVM) occur infrequently and with widespread anatomical distribution. Females are twice as likely to be affected. Most, if not all arteriovenous aneurysms are thought to represent focal and spontaneous faults of vascular development occurring between the fourth and tenth weeks of embryonic life [1]. Their growth results from an enlargement of existing vascular communications and from recruitment of new collateral channels, which may turn a clinically quiescent lesion symptomatic. Although instances of posttraumatic or postoperative arteriovenous malformation have been reported, traumatic events in many instances simply call attention to a lesion present since birth. Congenital genitourinary AVMs are rare, especially in males. Most of the congenital lesions are found in the kidney or bladder [2]. Symptoms include impotence, dysuria, rectal tenesmus, scrotal edema, back pain or pelvic pain, hematuria or retroperitoneal hemorrhage [3]. In rare instances of hemodynamically relevant shunt volumina, AVMs may mimic the clinical presentation of structural heart disease [4].