[Conservative treatment of cerebral arteriovenous malformations. Follow-up study of 31 cases].

The clinical course of 31 patients with conservatively treated intracranial arteriovenous malformations (AVM's) was followed-up. The average follow-up period was 8.2 years, 75% of patients were followed up for more than 5 years. The initial symptom was intracranial bleeding in 21 patients (68%), seizure in 5 (16%), neurological deficit in 2 (6.5%), headache in 2 (6.5%) and intracranial hypertension in 1 (3%). The prognosis was more favourable for patients presenting with seizures than for patients presenting with haemorrhage. Patients in the haemorrhage group had 29% incidence of haemorrhage causing 14% mortality in this group. Of the 31 patient's 20 (64.5%) had a good clinical outcome, 4 (13%) had a fair outcome and 2 (6.5%) poor, 5 patients died, with one not due to AVM. There was no correlation between pregnancy and bleeding.