Arteriovenous malformations of the anterior and the middle portions of the corpus callosum: microsurgical treatment.

The arterio-venous malformations of the corpus callosum are distinct clinical and surgical entities. Review of literature reveals 45 documented cases of which 32 were treated surgically. The authors (M.G.Y.) had 18 such patients of which eight involved the anterior and the middle portions of the corpus callosum. (No. 8 involved the whole callosum). The patients were in the younger age group. Headache and stiffness of the neck were the common presenting features. Seizures were rare and there was a paucity of localizing neurological signs. These AVMs are supplied mainly by the pericallosal arteries and occasionally by branches of the posterior cerebral artery. The drainage is by septal veins, the inferior sagittal sinus and the superior sagittal sinus. Radical excision of these AVMs in the anterior and the middle portions of the corpus callosum was accomplished without operative mortality and with minimal morbidity. Radical removal of these anomalies with microsurgical techniques is the treatment of choice.