Radiosurgery for cerebral AVMs in children and adolescents: the neurobehavioral outcome.

Eight patients, ranging in age from 9 to 18 years, were treated for arteriovenous malformations using gamma knife radiosurgery and were evaluated an average of 6 years after treatment to record potential effects of radiosurgery on cognitive and neuropsychological performance. Tests for general intelligence, nonverbal intelligence, memory and its components, and attention performance were administered to patients and compared with test results of age-matched siblings or first cousins. No statistically significant difference was found between the performance of patients and controls in any of the tests administered. Additionally, a specially designed questionnaire completed by the patients, their parents, and their teachers revealed that the patients' emotional and relational behavior was stable and unchanged after treatment. No correlation was found between the neurocognitive test performance and the lesion volumes irradiated, but the lesion site was found to contribute to the type of deficit recorded after treatment. The less invasive nature of the radiosurgical approach, combined with the brevity or absence of hospitalization, presumably contributed to the patients successful physical, mental, and emotional recovery.