A cerebral or brain arteriovenous malformation (AVM) can be difficult to treat and often requires an interdisciplinary approach to therapy. The ultimate goal in treating an arteriovenous malformation of the brain is to remove or cut off the blood supply to the AVM. Endovascular surgeons at the Center for Endovascular Surgery often use the endovascular treatment of embolization as the first line of attack to do so. Some patients, however, have cases that require a AVM surgery (AVM resection) to completely remove the arteriovenous malformation.

An AVM surgery (AVM resection) is an open brain surgical procedure performed by the Center's affiliated neurosurgeons from the Center's larger division, Beth Israel's Hyman-Newman Institute for Neurology and Neurosurgery (INN). An open brain procedure means that the neurosurgeon cuts through the skull.

Once the skull is opened, the AVM surgery (AVM resection) involves the neurosurgeon identifying the margins of the arteriovenous malformation. During the AVM resection, the neurosurgeon then clips the arterial vessels that feed the AVM, removes or destroys the veins that drain the AVM, and then removes or destroys the AVM's nidus, which is the abnormally direct connection of the arteries and veins.

In some circumstances, depending on the variables of the AVM (size, location, whether it is bleeding or not), embolization and/or radiosurgery are used in combination with AVM surgery or AVM resection.

Arteriovenous malformations generally occur later in childhood or, more frequently, in adults in their 20s or 30s. Brain AVMs present with seizures, hemorrhage, progressive neurological dysfunction or headaches. On occasion, these lesions are found incidentally during various imaging scans of the brain obtained for other reasons