Treatment strategy and long-term outcome in patients with deep lumbosacral arteriovenous fistulas. A single center analysis in nineteen patients

Abstract Objective Deep lumbosacral dural arteriovenous fistulas (lsDAVF) are rare and present serious diagnostic and treatment difficulties. In our current analysis we present our treatment strategy and the long-term clinical outcome of nineteen patients with lsDAVF. Patients and methods We retrospectively analyzed our radiological and medical records for patients presenting with SDAVF between 1990 and 2018 at the University Hospital Aachen. We identified twenty patients with a lsDAVF. All patients were treated surgically. One patient died of pulmonary embolism three months after treatment and was excluded from our outcome analysis. Clinical data at time of admission, discharge, one year after discharge and at the last follow-up were evaluated according to modified Aminoff-Logue disability score (AL-score) for this analysis. Results Mean age was 65 ± 7 years (median, 67; range, 53–78), sixteen patients (84 %) were male. After surgery, four patients developed a recurrent fistula in the same shunt zone and were re-treated microsurgically. Follow-up data one year after treatment was available in 15 patients. No relevant changes in AL-score were observed within this period. For the long-term follow-up analysis, data of 13 patients were available; 38.5 % of patients developed late functional deterioration. Conclusion In our cohort, patients with deep lumbosacral dural arteriovenous fistula had a higher risk of early recurrence compared to patients with thoracolumbar SDAVF, with a considerable percentage of late functional deterioration. Thus strict clinical and radiologic long-term follow-up examinations are recommended in those patients.