Neovascularization (angiogenesis) after revascularization in moyamoya disease. Which technique is most useful for...

The effects of direct and indirect revascularization for moyamoya disease were analyzed for each donor artery to determine which surgical procedure is most useful for the induction of neovascularization. In the past 12 years, 85 patients with moyamoya disease were surgically treated by combined surgery consisting of indirect revascularization via encephalo-duro-arterio-myo-synangiosis (EDAMS) and direct revascularization via the superficial temporal artery and the middle cerebral artery (STA-MCA) bypass. Among those patients, the post-operative changes in digital subtraction angiography were examined in 56 sides, including 34 sides in paediatric cases and 22 sides in adult cases. The neovascularization after indirect revascularization using the 1) superficial temporal artery (skin), 2) middle meningeal artery (dura mater), 3) deep temporal artery (temporal muscle) was analyzed. As results, in paediatric cases, the deep temporal artery and middle meningeal artery induced good neovascularization. However, the induction of neovascularization from the superficial temporal artery was not always good in most pediatric and adult cases. On the other hand, the direct bypass was useful in 90% of adult cases. In indirect revascularization surgery for moyamoya disease, the temporal muscle (the deep temporal artery) and the dura mater (the middle meningeal artery) are useful donors to the ischemic brain. The simple encephalo-arterio-synangiosis is not always effective. The direct bypass is a useful technique for adult moyamoya disease.