Neuropsychological Effects of Brain Arteriovenous Malformations

Abstract

Brain arteriovenous malformations are congenital vascular malformations, which can be located in any part of the brain (cortical, sub-cortical, dural, or brain stem). They are vascular anomalies which are made up of a complex tangle of abnormal veins and arteries that are missing a capillary bed (AVM Study Group, 1999; Stapf, Mohr, Pile-Spellman et al., 2001) and instead, artery and vein are connected by fistulas and characterized by "shunting" of blood from artery to vein (Bambakidis et al., 2001; Klimo, Rao, & Brockmeyer, 2007; O'Brien, Neyastani, Buckley, Chang, & Legiehn, 2006). Often, arteriovenous malformations are asymptomatic and go undetected unless there is a clinical event (such as hemorrhage or seizure). Unlike other brain lesions, the arteriovenous malformation itself often does not cause cognitive dysfunction. This phenomenon has been explained by Lazar, Marshall, Pile-Spellman, Hacein-Bey et al. (1997) and Lazar, Marshall, Pile-Spellman, Duong et al. (2000), who suggested that brain reorganization could be due to the chronic nature of the arteriovenous malformation. Rather, it is usually a hemorrhage that is responsible for functional/cognitive changes seen in patients with arteriovenous malformation. This chapter focuses on the neuropsychological effects of brain arteriovenous malformations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)