ABSTRACT
Purpose: We studied the clinico-radiological features and treatment outcomes of patients with aggressive spinal haemangiomas. Methods: We undertook a retrospective review of 24 patients with aggressive spinal haemangiomas managed at our centre from 2004 to 2016. The cohort was divided into two groups. Group1 included patients managed from 2004 to 2009 while Group 2 was those treated between 2010 and 2016. Clinicoradiological features and treatment outcomes were studied. Results: Back pain (24/24) and myelopathy (18/24) were the most common presenting complaints. Over 80% (20/24) of patients, had involvement of the thoracic spine and more than 50% (13/24) had severe spasticity, being Nurick grade 4&5 at presentation. The various treatment modalities used were laminectomy with or without instrumented posterior fusion (10/24), corpectomy with instrumented fusion (10/24) and alcohol injection alone (4/24). Patients who were treated with surgery had significant clinical improvement at follow-up in both groups. Patients who underwent alcohol injection did not have any improvement in symptoms at follow-up. There was a change in our strategy in the later part of the series from a two staged anterior and posterior approach to a single staged posterior-only approach to address vertebral body disease with preoperative angioembolization. Conclusion: Haemangiomas are benign lesions with locally aggressive behavior in some cases. Results of conservative approaches such as alcohol injection in management of these lesions are discouraging. Aggressive surgical decompression combined with preoperative adjuncts such as angioembolization with or without stabilization reduces intra operative blood loss and results in good neurological recovery even in patients with severe myelopathy.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: We studied the correlation between new-onset perinidal hyperintensity (PH) on T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging and obliteration of intracranial arteriovenous malformation (AVM) after stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS). METHODS: A retrospective study of 148 patients with an intracranial AVM who underwent SRS between September 2005 and June 2018 and had ≥1 radiological follow-up (early magnetic resonance imaging) 12-18 months after SRS was performed to analyze the correlation between PH (graded from 0 to 2) and AVM obliteration. RESULTS: Of the 148 patients, 95 were male. The mean patient age was 27.7 ± 12.4 years. Of the 148 AVMs, 105 (70.9%) were obliterated at a median follow-up of 27 months (interquartile range, 14-48 months). The cumulative 3-, 5-, 10-year obliteration rate was 51.8%, 70.8%, and 91.8%, respectively. New-onset PH was observed in 58 AVMs (39.2%; 50 obliterated and 8 not obliterated). No association was found between the pretreatment variables or dose delivered and the development of PH. Grade 2 PH was associated with the risk of symptoms developing compared with grade 1 PH (37.5% vs. 4%; P = 0.002). Symptomatic PH was more likely to develop in patients with a larger AVM (P = 0.05). On multivariate analysis, the presence of a single draining vein (odds ratio [OR], 2.9; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.3-6.8), a lower median AVM volume (OR, 0.97; 95% CI, 0.6-0.89), a mean marginal radiation dose (OR, 1.29; 95% CI, 1.02-1.64), and the presence of PH (OR, 3.16; 95% CI, 1.29-7.71) were independent predictors of AVM obliteration. CONCLUSIONS: The incidence of PH after SRS for AVM was 39.2%. PH was an independent predictor of AVM obliteration after SRS. Grade 2 PH and a larger AVM volume were associated with symptomatic PH.
