Surgical management of arteriovenous malformation

This article presents our experience in managing a series of consecutive patients with arteriovenous malformation (AVM) referred to our Vascular Anomalies Centre over a 14-year period. These patients were culled from our prospective Vascular Anomalies Database 1996-2010. The medical records of these patients were reviewed to supplement the data collected. Out of 1131 patients with vascular anomalies, 53 patients (22 males, 31 females) with AVM were identified. Their mean age was 29 (range: 3-88) years with 14 stage-III, 34 stage-II and five stage-I AVMs, affecting the head and neck area (n=32), lower limb (n=13), upper limb (n=7) and trunk (n=1). Eight patients with eight stage-III and 14 patients with 15 stage-II AVMs underwent definitive surgery following preoperative embolisation in 10 patients. Seventeen patients required reconstruction with free flaps (n=8) or local or regional flaps (n=9), tissue expansion (n=4), tendon recession (n=1), tendon transfer (n=1), osseo-integration (n=1) and skin grafting (n=5). Fourteen patients required a combination of reconstructive techniques. During an average follow-up of 54 (range: 10-135) months, two (8.7%) lesions recurred but were improved following surgery. One patient with life-threatening stage-III AVM underwent 'palliative' surgery following preoperative embolisation and the lesion had improved and remained stable during the 4-year follow-up period. AVM is a challenging clinical problem that requires a multidisciplinary team approach. Complete surgical excision remains the gold-standard treatment and immediate reconstruction is an integral part of definitive surgery for AVM. The heterogeneous nature of AVM requires treatment to be tailored for individual patients and the complex excision defects necessitate expertise in a variety of reconstructive techniques. Our experience shows a recurrence rate of 8.7% following definitive surgery for AVM.