My niece is trying t decide whether to have a crainiotomy or Gamma Knife surgery. She has left middle occipital AVM. Bleed 04/2015. Now at at Barrow neurological in Phoenix AZ. The Dr. here feels can do a crainiotomy using the path of tissue that was damaged during embolizatio without further damage, But no guarantees.
Any help or recommendations would be appreciated.
She is now blind on right side of both eyes and struggles with recognizing letters and numbers. The doctor told us if she chooses Gamma Knife, she would no longer be a candidate for Crainiotomy if Gamma didn’t work.
Does the neurosurgeon feel like he will be able to completely resect your niece’s avm? Is there any brain tissue mixed in with the blood vessels or are there just blood vessels involved? A resection that involves all of the involved blood vessels is the gold standard of treatment for an avm. An avm that has bled can make a resection easier to do in some cases since there can be distinct boundaries of where the avm starts and ends. There would be no waiting to see if radiation would destroy the avm or not. It is not an easy decision to make. I will keep all of you in my thoughts. I have a right parieto-occipital avm that bled before I was born. I am now 31 years old. I have decided to just have my avm monitored for changes.
That’s a tough decision. I would be afraid to see if the radiation worked, especially if it would not make her a candidate for a craniotomy. I had onyx and then a craniotomy as my AVF started coming back. The surgeon told me the radiation would take too long and might not work. I didn’t want to chance it. It was removed with the craniotomy. I don’t know about gamma knife bit think that’s radiation?
I have a right side occipital AMV which has left me with no peripheral vision right field. I was considering the options too but I decided ultimately to go with the surgery as once it is done (in my case) it should be the end of the AVM and no more risks of bleeds.
My husband has a right side parietal occipital 3 cm AVM that they want to remove w a craniotomy in the next 8 weeks. Can u tell me what to expect after? The surgeon mentioned headaches and possible vision issue but nothing further apart from plan for 6-12 weeks off work.
My mom has her craniotomy 10/10/16 and it’s only been about a month now. She was in the hospital for 3 days. She still can’t really see, pain for about two to three weeks with bad headache. It was horrible for her, but worth it. No more AVM, but she may never get her vision completely back.