The Effect of External Radiation Therapy for Intracranial Arteriovenous Malformation-Conventional Radiation Therapy vs Stereotactic Radiosurgery

From February 1987 through July 1990, the seventeen cases of inoperabelintracranial arteriovenous malformation (AVM) were treated using 6 MV linear accelerator at the Division of Therapeutic Radiology, Kang Nam St. Mary's Hospital. Of seventeen cases, fourteen were male and three were female. Ages ranged from 10 to 51 years (median age of 26 years). The main symptoms were headache, epilepsy and hemiparesis in decreasing order of frequency. The middle cerebral artery is the most common origin of the feeding vessel (41.2%). Four were treated by conventionally fractionated radiation therapy (CRT), thirteen were treated by stereotactic radiosurgery (RS). Duration of follow-up study, two of four CRT group showed minimal response. Of thirteen cases of RS group, two (15.4%) showed complete response, five (38%) partial response, two (15.4%) minimal response and four (30.7%) no response by the same assessment. There was no statistical significance in terms of follow-up period (p=0.22), size of lesion (p=0.82) and treated dose (p=0.65). Further accumulation of experience s recommended with proper case selection and sufficient follow-up period