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Query: UMLS:C0036572 (seizures)
 80,221 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Cerebral venous angiomas are congenital anomalies of the intracranial venous drainage. Many believe that they are associated with a high risk of hemorrhage and neurological dysfunction, but newer neurodiagnostic imaging techniques are showing not only that they are more common than previously known but also that many have no associated symptoms. In this retrospective study, the natural history of venous angiomas was examined in 100 patients (48 males and 52 females) with radiographically identifiable lesions treated over a 14-year period. Information on the natural history of the lesion was obtained from clinical records and follow-up data. Imaging studies included angiography, computerized tomography, and magnetic resonance imaging. Angioma locations were classified as frontal (42 cases), parietal (24 cases), occipital (4 cases), temporal (2 cases), basal or ventricular (11 cases), cerebellar (14 cases), or brain stem (3 cases); 47 lesions were on the left side. Headache as a presenting symptom was common (36 patients) and often led to other radiographic studies, but this appeared to be related to the vascular lesion in only four patients. Other possibly related complications were hemorrhage in one patient, seizures in five, and transient focal deficits in eight. Fifteen patients had no neurological signs or symptoms. The mean patient age at last contact was 45.3 years (range 3 to 94 years). All patients have been managed without surgery. It is concluded that significant complications secondary to venous angiomas are infrequent and that surgical resection of these lesions and of surrounding brain is rarely indicated.
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PMID:The natural history of intracranial venous angiomas. 191 93

In the last years, treatment decisions of arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) were influenced by the improvement of stereotactic radiosurgery and were revolutionized by development of embolization techniques. The aim of this report was to examine the results, effectiveness, and complications associated with angioma surgery. 191 patients with AVMs were operated by the first author between 1981 and 1996. Angioma localization was distributed as follows: frontal 51 (26.7%), temporal 44 (23%), parietal 45 (23.6%), and occipital 24 (12.6%). Twelve (6.3%) AVMs were located in the cerebellum and 15 (7.9%) in other deep regions. Twenty-nine (15.2%) AVMs were associated with single or multiple aneurysms. The preoperative symptoms were hemorrhage (50.3%), seizure (33.5%), headache (23.0%), focal neurological deficits (12.6%), and other minor symptoms. In 9.9%, the disease remains preoperatively asymptomatic. Based on the Spetzler/Martin scale (S/M), 38 patients were grade I, 39 grade II, 52 grade III, 39 grade IV, and 23 grade V. The following severe complications were observed: postoperative hemorrhage in 13 (6.8%), infection in six (3.1%), infarction in two (1.0%), and death in three (1.6%). The risk for postoperative complications was related to the preoperative S/M grade of the AVM. Severe complications only occurred in AVM grades IV and V. In 62 patients with grade IV and V AVM, three patients died (4.8%) and 12 showed neurological deterioration (19.4%). Only 3/129 (2.3%) patients with grade I-III AVM deteriorated postoperatively. No severe complications were observed in preembolized and recently operated patients. Microsurgical management of cerebral AVMs seems to be a reasonably safe procedure especially in grade I-III AVMs, with a mortality of less than 2%. With enough experience and exact attention to detail, the experienced neurosurgeon can remove many of these AVMs with a minimum of risk to the affected patient. Although hemorrhage from an AVM can be disabling or deadly, the course in many nonoperated high-grade AVMs (S/M grades IV and V) can be quite benign, if compared with their surgical risk. This may justify conservative treatment or treatment with radiosurgery in some high-grade (S/M grades IV and V) angiomas, especially in elderly patients.
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PMID:Complications of angioma surgery--personal experience in 191 patients with cerebral angiomas. 1023 12