Hello
My brother had his first embolization for a occipitoparietal cerebral AVM last year in June and he felt very well till 2 days ago. He had another crisis ( he was seizures free for a year ) and we took him to hospital. They did a CT and told us that he might had recanalization of the AVM. They are not sure until we do a angiography but...
Please tell me if you heard of this possible complication after embolization and if it happened to either of you.
Thank you very much
Laura
Hi Laura,
I’d never heard of that term (recanalization) previously. I googled the phrase and read three abstracts of articles talking about it. Foremostly, it was WAY over my head and I’m mostly guessing at what it means.
I think it means that a new or previously unknown AVM formed after blood was shut off to the known AVM.
My understanding is when you fix an AVM, the blood pressure increases in the brain. Before, the shunting of blood from arteries to veins without going through capillaries caused the rest of the brain to get less or lower pressure blood. So when you shut off the AVM, more/higher pressure blood flows in the brain. If there are any weaknesses in vessels, the increased pressure can result in aneurysms or maybe another AVM.
I never heard the term used in Chari’s treatments over 10 years. But the doctors were pretty emphatic that following 6 or so embolizations, two radiosurgeries, and surgery to repair an aneurysm, that they should do microsurgery to remove the remains of the AVM. Maybe they wanted to do that to prevent recanalization??? I don’t know.
Probably best to ask the DR to clarify for all of you. Hope this helps.
And also a general question for you please: Do you read/write this in English or do you use the translate function of this website? I’m amazed at the number of members who are outside the US. Their posts in English are well written and easy to understand. I don’t know if all of you just know near perfect English or if this website just has super translating capabilities? Just curious. THANKS.
Ron, KS
Thank you very much Ron for your response. I can not ask my doctor now because of the Easter Holiday - we left him an email ( our doctor is in Zurich and here in Romania he was seen at the emergency room ). This is the first time I have heard of this term also. As far as your question is concerned, I didn’t know that this site has a translation function. I think that all of them know English. In our schools 2 foreign languages are learned. I wish you very well
Hi Laura,
Yes, the site has a translator function. On the screen which you view this, if you look at the lower right, there is a button called Tools. If you click on that to maximize it, at the left of the bar says Translate and lets you pick which language you want.
Since I barely read English and no other languages, I can't judge it's value.
Good Day,
Ron, KS
Hi, dear Laura, I let you a private message. I am sorry to hear about this new problem but I hope you have already solved it by now and your brother is perfectly well and safe. I am about to make embolization myself and wish to ask you about some details.