Interventional treatment of dural arteriovenous fistula

  Overview: Dural arteriovenous fistula is an abnormal traffic between the dural sinuses such as cavernous sinus, lateral sinus, sagittal sinus and its nearby arterioles, which is the communication between the extracranial blood supplying arteries and intracranial venous sinuses, mostly seen in adults. Dural arteriovenous fistulas are arteriovenous shunts that occur in the dura mater, where the supplying artery is the internal carotid, external carotid, or meningeal branch of the vertebral artery, and the blood is shunted into the venous sinus. As the arterial blood flows directly into the venous sinus, the arterialization of blood in the venous sinus and the increase of pressure in the venous sinus result in the obstruction of cerebral venous reflux or even reflux, resulting in cerebral edema, increased intracranial pressure, cerebral metabolic disorders, vascular rupture and hemorrhage, and other pathological changes.  Diagnosis: cranial X-ray 1, medical history: whether there are intracranial murmurs, headaches, seizures and subarachnoid hemorrhage, history of trauma, large venous sinusitis and thrombosis.  2. Physical examination: presence of intracranial murmur, proptosis, hypermetropia, meningeal irritation and scalp varicose veins, etc.  3, CT scan and MRI (MRA): should do plain scan plus enhancement, often can not find the lesion itself, but can find venous sinus thrombosis, vasodilation or hemorrhage and hydrocephalus.  4. Cerebral angiography is the most important method to confirm the diagnosis. A whole brain angiogram should be performed under DSA conditions to understand the blood supply arteries, the location of fistulas and the draining veins and sinuses.  Interventional treatment: Intra-arterial embolization: With the continuous development of interventional radiological endovascular treatment, endovascular embolization for DAVFs has gradually become the main treatment means. The specific method is: Seldinger technique is used to puncture and cannulate through the femoral artery, and whole brain angiography is performed to understand the blood supply artery of the fistula, the size and location of the fistula, the number and direction of the draining veins, and then the microcatheter is placed into the blood supply artery and embolized, regardless of the embolization method, attention should be paid to avoid “dangerous anastomosis” of the intracranial and extracranial vessels. Whatever the embolization method, care should be taken to avoid “dangerous anastomosis” of the extra-cranial vessels.  The patient was discharged after one week of hospitalization with complete resolution of discomfort.