Study on the relationship between post-circulatory lesions and cerebral infarction in children with ischemic moyamoya disease

Objective To explore the relationship between post-circulatory lesions and cerebral infarction in children with ischemic moyamoya disease (MMD). Methods A total of 44 children with ischemic MMD who were admitted to Department of Neurosurgery, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital from January 2010 to December 2018 were retrospectively enrolled into this study. All of them were divided into cerebral infarction group (15 cases) and non-cerebral infarction group (29 cases) according to whether they had cerebral infarction or not. Three cases were treated with encephalo-myosynangiosis (EMS), 5 cases with superficial temporal artery-middle cerebral artery anastomosis bypass (STA-MCA bypass) and 36 cases with EMS+ STA-MCA. All children were followed up by outpatient visits or telephone and were asked about the improvement of clinical symptoms and whether there were any cerebral infarction events. The outcome was assessed by the modified Rankin scale score (mRS). The clinical efficacy was compared between the 2 groups of children. The clinical factors affecting the children with cerebral infarction were further analyzed by single factor and multiple factor logistic regression. Results All 44 patients underwent successful operation. Postoperative complications occurred in 12 cases (27.3%, 12/44). There was no statistically significant difference in the incidence of complications between 2 groups [40.0% (6/15) vs. 28.7% (6/29), P=0.615]. The follow-up duration of 44 cases was 7.2±1.5 months (6-12 months). During the follow-up period, none of the children had cerebral infarction. Among the 44 cases, 35 (79.5%) had good outcomes and 9 (20.5%) had poor outcomes. There was no statistically significant difference in the favorable prognosis rate between the 2 groups [66.7% (10/15) vs. 86.3% (25/29), P=0.130]. Single factor analysis showed that MCA stenosis, PCA (posterior cerebral artery) stenosis and transient ischemic attack before operation were the influencing factors of cerebral infarction in children (all P < 0.05). Further multiple factor analysis showed that PCA stenosis was an independent risk factor for cerebral infarction in children (OR=5.465, 95% CI: 1.224-24.400, P=0.026). Conclusion In children with ischemic MMD, PCA stenosis is an independent risk factors for cerebral infarction, and whether there is cerebral infarction has no significant effect on the prognosis of those children. Key words: Moyamoya disease; Child; Factor analysis, statistical; Post-circulatory lesions; Cerebral infarction