Hello all!
Had Gamma Knife Radiosurgery done 2 years ago and have been told by the professionals that swelling and the AVM have began to shrink. They did mention scarring where the AVM was located (I have an angiogram next year to determine definitively the status of my AVM). However, they were quite vague when I asked questions about it.
I was just wondering if anyone else has experience or familiarity with AVM scarring and what they experienced, and what I also could possibly expect?
Hey pretty cool, so I don’t give false information, I’ll pass along info from a doctor’s post op notes: https://media.uvahealth.com/gamma-knife?st-t=gamma-knife-s&gclid=Cj0KCQjwoPL2BRDxARIsAEMm9y9oRHvR75xhXwvz-tUfJvO03bAs0B-CNv-FKx8hdG4BDX6i0Adph8gaAm7zEALw_wcB
Granted, we all have had gamma knife from different areas, but generally that’s the latest from University of Virginia. Blessings as you continue!
I had scarring from the shunt wrap around my shunt tube such they had to change it (shunt) out. But for the latest and for your specific case, you’ll wanna follow up with your treatment team. Blessings as you continue!
Khal,
If you use the grey magnifying glass to search through the posts on this site – I’ve just had a look for “gamma scarring” for example – I think we can see some people reporting that they have scarring where their AVM used to be (post gamma). As Paul says, if you have concerns, it is good to discuss those with the neurosurgery / interventional radiology team.
Note also that using the search facility will search through all conversations ever had on this platform, so it will find you something that people were talking about in 2009 or 2012 as much as it would this year or last, so beware restarting conversations that are really old – a lot of people will have moved on, changed email addresses etc in the meanwhile. Use search to find relevant experience but be careful about writing to people from a long time ago.
Hope this helps,
Richard
Hello Khal
3+ years ago I had gamma knife surgery on my avm near my brain stem. I was told by my doctors that the gamma knife damages the inner vessel wall, and as the vessel heals, it thickens, until it closes off the blood supply and then it will remain as scar tissue or be absorbed by the body.
Mine is 95% gone and I expect by next year, it will be 100%. If I knew how to upload a side by side MRI pic I would. Its very fascinating to see the difference over 3 years. There was much less difference at the 2 year mark.
Hey cool guy,
I’m two years in as well. Right frontal parietal. I think the scaring is what we’re hoping for to gradually close off the AVM. It’s good news along with the shrinking. I have a big ole lesion next to my AVM that’s not good news that came from the radiation. It got smaller along with the AVM and the brain swelling when I had my most recent look so I’m back to feeling hopeful that this might all actually work out in another 1- 3 years. Best wishes to you!!