[A clinical study of severe cases of hemorrhagic cerebral arteriovenous malformations]

The clinical study was undertaken on 24 poor risk patients out of 69 cases with hemorrhagic cerebral arteriovenous malformations, AVMs, and the surgical problems of poor risk patients with the lesions were discussed. The 24 cases, 35%, out of 69 hemorrhagic AVMs cases showed disturbances of consciousness of 3 digits (100-300) according to the Japan Coma Scale at the time of admission. All cases of these poor risk patients were observed less than 24 hours after the onset of the symptoms. Fifteen of these 24 cases showed brainstem signs including anisocoria and/or decerebrate rigidity and/or respiratory arrest. Eighty-three per cent of 24 poor risk patients had serious neurological defects as a result of the first hemorrhage. Therefore, it was impossible to prevent serious state from occurring in poor risk patients. Of the 69 cases with hemorrhagic AVMs, 56 cases were operated upon. Although 90% out of 38 good risk patients whose level of consciousness was 0 to 30 according to the Japan Coma Scale showed good recovery, only 44% of 18 poor risk patients recovered well. It could not be said that the surgical treatment gave satisfactory results for the poor risk patients when compared with the surgical results of the good risk patients. In respect to the location of AVMs, all three poor risk patients with AVMs in the corpus callosum and the ventricles showed good recovery, whereas of the poor risk patients with AVMs in the cerebrum or the cerebellum, only 4 out of 9 cases (44%) and 1 out of 6 cases (17%) showed good recovery respectively.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)