Superior petrosal sinus dural arteriovenous malformation with varix indenting brain stem--report of a case and review of the literature

A rare case of the dural AVM mainly around the left petrosal sinus was reported. A 64 years old man was admitted just after the sudden onset of severe headache and nausea. The CT scan revealed subarachnoid hemorrhage in the left ambient cisterns. A small hematoma was also found in the left cerebellar peduncle. External carotid angiogram showed a dural AVM which nidus was located adjacent to the left superior petrosal sinus. Its feeding arteries were as follows; the middle meningeal artery, the artery of foramen rotundum, the accessory meningeal artery, the dural branch of occipital artery and the ascending pharyngeal artery. The voluminous petrosal vein and the dilated cortical veins were identified as drainers and, the portion of the latter appeared as "varix" embedded in the pons, which was clearly delineated by MRI. In the venous phase, stenotic straight sinus and residual Falcine sinus were illustrated. Superselective embolization of the feeding arteries was employed followed by the direct clippings of draining vein. Postoperative course was uneventful. The present case should be classified into the tentorial dural AVM. Only 26 cases of this rarely encountered entity was reported in the literature. Based on both the present and the previously reported cases, the clinical features, treatment and pathogenesis of this disease were briefly discussed.