Objective:

To describe the clinical-epidemiological characteristics and management of cerebral arteriovenous malformations (AVM) in patients treated at the Instituto Nacional de Salud del Niño San Borja (INSN-SB).

Materials and methods:

A retrospective and descriptive study conducted in patients with AVM treated at the INSN-SB between 2015 and 2017. Data was processed and analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics statistical software version 22. The qualitative variables were expressed in absolute and relative frequencies.

Results:

Forty-one (41) AVM cases were identified, being more frequent in the age group between 6 and 12 years (56.10 %) and in females (65.90 %). Ruptured AVM occurred in 80.49 % of the patients and 92.70 % claimed that headache was the most frequent clinical manifestation. The anatomical areas with the highest occurrence of AVM were the frontal lobe (36.60 %) and the left cerebral hemisphere (51.20 %). Grade III AVM was the most common one (43.90 %) according to the Spetzler-Martin grading scale. The most frequently used treatment was embolization (39 %) and mortality accounted for 2.40 %.

Conclusions:

AVM most frequently occurred in females and patients between 6 and 12 years old. A little more than half of the patients had a ruptured AVM. Headache was the predominant symptom of this disease. Most patients showed grade III AVM according to the Spetzler-Martin grading scale. Embolization was the most frequently used surgical method and the mortality rate was low.

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