Dear @infoneed
If your concerned about possible side effects of the retreatment I would raise these concerns with the neuro-radiologist consultant. You could look for more opinions from other neuro-radiologists and neurosurgeon specialists in treating AVMs - you could send them recent angiogram scans of your sons AVM.
Here is a post with helpful questions you could ask to get more information from the consultant too:
http://www.avmsurvivors.org/t/questions-for-your-neurosurgeon-brain-and-spine-avms/14806?u=corrine
You could look into the other radio-surgery options too: proton beam, cyber knife and see if these would be options for your son’s case and ask about the differances in risks/benefits/time frames/ expected success rates compared to gamma knife? If your sons progressively getting worse, it would be understandable that if its safe, retreatment would be important to look into.
Your concerns about the specialists reasoning for changing their minds on treatment being an option are totally valid and understandable. However potentially, this change of decision could be based on other things too:
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your sons AVM may have changed or causing more impact on surrounding tissues since your son as you described has progressively gotten worse over the years potentially making benefits of treatment now outweigh risks when compared to the risk of having more impact on his health going without treatment.
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technology and experience with radiosurgery has developed since your son was last treated - perhaps they are now more confident in treating your sons AVM than before.
Hope it’s ok - I have changed the title for your post and moved it to “symptoms and treatment” so hopefully more people who your post is most relevant/relatable to will recognise and respond.
Best of luck,
Corrine