Surgical treatment of cranial arteriovenous malformations and dural arteriovenous fistulas

Microsurgical resection remains the treatment of choice for more than half of all patients with arteriovenous malformations (AVMs). It reduces the treatment window to a span of a few weeks and is curative. Careful patient selection, meticulous surgical planning, and painstaking technical execution of surgery are typically rewarded with excellent outcomes. For dural arteriovenous fistulas (DAVFs), microsurgical obliteration is often reserved for cases in which endovascular therapy either cannot be pursued or fails. When performed, however, microsurgical obliteration of DAVFs is associated with excellent outcomes as well. This article reviews the current state of microsurgical treatment of AVMs and DAVFs.