Recurrence of arteriovenous malformations of the brain after complete surgical resection. Kuopio University Hospital experience and systematic review of the literature

Treatment for arteriovenous malformations of the brain (bAVMs) aims to achieve complete removal or occlusion of the lesion in order to eradicate the risk of rupture and subsequent morbidity associated with these lesions. Despite initially successful treatment, bAVMs may carry a risk of recurrence especially in younger patients. We studied the rate of recurrence of surgically treated bAVMs at Kuopio University Hospital (KUH) in 1981–2021. The study population was collected retrospectively from KUH databases and presented a cohort of 135 surgically treated bAVMs with complete occlusion of the lesion. We also performed a systematic literature review on this topic. In our series, 6 out of 135 (4.4%) patients with angiographically confirmed removal of the lesion later developed a recurrent bAVM with a median time to diagnosis of recurrence of 7.46 years. In pediatric patients, the rate was 5 out of 17 (29.4%). bAVM recurrence was associated with age (p = 0.001) and initial hemorrhagic presentation (p = 0.039). Median age of the study population was 37 years (min 0, max 70), and 51/135 (37.8%) of the patients were female. Seventeen (12.6%) of the 135 bAVM patients were considered pediatric (18 years old or younger) at the time of the operation. In the literature review, 79 of 1739 (4.5%) of surgically treated patients later developed a recurrence with a mean delay of 3.1 years until diagnosis of recurrence. Young surgically treated bAVM patients with a hemorrhagic presentation at initial diagnosis are at a relatively high risk of bAVM recurrence. Follow-up imaging should be arranged for these patients in order to prevent rupture from a recurrent bAVM and subsequent morbidity.