Vertebral arteriovenous fistulae. Report of two cases and review of the literature.

Two patients with vertebral arteriovenous fistulae were treated at the Neurosurgical Clinic of the City Hospital of Hannover between 1981 and 1988. Both patients were males, 19 and 29 year old. The fistulae were secondary to cervical gunshot wounds. Both patients complained of a loud cephalic noise; 1 patient had a non pulsating neck mass. A systolic cervical bruit was heard in both cases. One patient had an incomplete mid-cervical Brown-Sequard syndrome. The fistulae involved the second portion of the vertebral artery: 1 fistula was fed, in addition to the vertebral artery, by the deep cervical artery. Venous drainage was through intraspinal plexus, vertebral vein, deep cervical veins and internal jugular vein. One patient was treated with a direct surgical trapping of the vertebral artery proximal and distal to the fistula: the other patient, in addition to direct surgical vertebral artery trapping, received an endovascular balloon occlusion of the deep cervical artery. After treatment the fistulae disappeared, both clinically and angiographically.