Management of Acute Hemorrhage Caused by Cerebral Arteriovenous Malformation During Pregnancy–Case Series and Literature Review

• Published in: World neurosurgery 2021-08, Vol.152, p.e688-e699
• Main Authors: Zhong, Zhihong, Ni, Hongyang, Zhu, Jun, Jiang, Hong, Hu, Jinqing, Lin, Dong, Bian, Liuguan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cerebral arteriovenous malformation; Pregnancy; Treatment strategy; Treatment timing
• ISSN: 1878-8750; 1878-8769
• DOI: 10.1016/j.wneu.2021.06.002

Acute hemorrhage caused by cerebral arteriovenous malformation (cAVM) during pregnancy is uncommon but life-threatening for both mother and fetus and presents a great challenge to clinical management. However, there is still no consensus on the treatment strategy and the treatment timing of acute hemorrhage from cAVM during pregnancy. The aim of this study was to amalgamate reported case series and our cases regarding the clinical management of pregnant patients under this special condition. We report a case series of 3 pregnant patients with acute hemorrhage caused by cAVM in our hospital. A systematic PubMed search of the English-language literature published between 1970 and 2020 was carried out. Clinical information including patients' age, gestational age, imaging studies, treatment strategy, treatment timing, delivery mode, and outcomes were collected and analyzed. The rebleed rate is about 7.1% and the mortality from rebleeding is up to 25%. Treatment modalities included radical surgery, endovascular embolization, radiosurgery/stereotactic radiosurgery, palliative surgery, and conservative treatment. There were no maternal deaths in either the intrapartum intervention group and the postpartum intervention subgroup of gestational age