Although brain arteriovenous malformations (bAVMs) account for a very small proportion of cerebral pathologies in the pediatric population, they are the cause of roughly 50% of spontaneous intracranial hemorrhages. Pediatric bAVMs tend to rupture more frequently and seem to have higher recurrence rates than bAVMs in adults ^{1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7)}.

The natural history of untreated cerebral AVMs in children is worse than in adults, in relation to a longer life expectation, a higher annual risk of AVM bleeding (3.2% vs. 2.2%) and a higher incidence of posterior fossa and basal ganglia AVMs, most of which present with massive haemorrhages ⁸⁾.

The management of pediatric bAVMs is particularly challenging. In general, the treatment options are conservative treatment, microsurgery, endovascular therapy (EVT), gamma knife radiosurgery (GKRS), proton-beam stereotactic radiosurgery (PSRS), or a combination of the above.

In 2019 Meling et al., performed a systematic review, according to the PRISMA guidelines, with the result that none of the options seem to offer a clear advantage over the others when used alone. Microsurgery provides the highest obliteration rate, but has higher incidence of neurological complications. EVT may play a role when used as adjuvant therapy, but as a stand-alone therapy, the efficacy is low and the long-term side effects of radiation from the multiple sessions required in deep-seated pediatric bAVMs are still unknown. GKRS has a low risk of complication, but the obliteration rates still leave much to be desired. Finally, PSRS offers promising results with a more accurate radiation that avoids the surrounding tissue, but data is limited due to its recent introduction. Overall, a multi-modal approach, or even an active surveillance, might be the most suitable when facing deep-seated bAVM, considering the difficulty of their management and the high risk of complications in the pediatric population ⁹⁾.

In 2016 El-Ghanem et al., published a Review of the Existing Literature:

Microsurgical resection remains the gold standard for the treatment of all accessible pediatric AVMs. Embolization and radiosurgery should be considered as an adjunctive therapy. Embolization provides a useful adjunct therapy to microsurgery by preventing significant blood loss and to radiosurgery by decreasing the volume of the AVM. Radiosurgery has been described to provide an alternative treatment approach in certain circumstances either as a primary or adjuvant therapy ¹⁰⁾.

Intracranial haemorrhage is the presenting clinical manifestation in 75-80% of paediatric patients and is associated with a high morbidity and mortality ¹¹⁾.

A prospectively maintained database of children between January 1997 and October 2012 for bAVMs was retrospectively queried to identify all consecutive ruptured bAVMs treated by surgery, embolization, and radiosurgery. The impact of baseline clinical and bAVM characteristics on clinical outcome, rebleeding rate, annual bleeding rate, and bAVM obliteration was studied using univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis.

One hundred six children with ruptured bAVMs were followed up for a total of 480.5 patient-years (mean, 4.5 years). Thirteen rebleeding events occurred, corresponding to an annual bleeding rate of 2.71±1.32%, significantly higher in the first year (3.88±1.39%) than thereafter (2.22±1.38%; P<0.001) and in the case of associated aneurysms (relative risk, 2.68; P=0.004) or any deep venous drainage (relative risk, 2.97; P=0.002), in univariate and multivariate analysis. Partial embolization was associated with a higher annual bleeding rate, whereas initial surgery for intracerebral hemorrhage evacuation was associated with a lower risk of rebleeding.

Associated aneurysms and any deep venous drainage are independent risk factors for rebleeding in pediatric ruptured bAVMs. Immediate surgery or total embolization might be advantageous for children harboring such characteristics, whereas radiosurgery might be targeted at patients without such characteristics ¹²⁾.