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Reviewed By: Louise Chang,
SOURCES: 2007 Medical Reference from Medstar Television. David W. Newell, MD, Neurosurgeon, Swedish Neuroscience Institute, Seattle, WA.
© 1999-2011 Medstar Television
Linda Christianson is fine now, but a few year back when she tripped on the stairs and then stumbled while walking, her family knew something was wrong.
The two incidents happened within a week of each other and then I saw the physician about eight days after that.
An MRI showed a problem in the front section of Linda's brain. She had a cluster of abnormally formed blood vessels and was diagnosed with AVM.
I describe it to patients or interested individuals as a tangle of blood vessels in the brain. It kind of looks like a nest of snakes that you would see in some of the old medieval drawings.
Doctor David Newell (new-wul) treats 30 to 40 AVM patients a year. When vessels are tangled, they can rupture and cause bleeding in the brain. Removal through surgery is one option.
Once the AVM is successfully treated and safely removed and patients do well, they should expect to have a normal lifespan.
Linda's AVM was in the front, silent area of her brain… away from critical structures that affect speech or sensory and motor function.
AVM's really form in all different locations of the brain, They're probably a little bit more common in the frontal regions, but they can form in any part of the brain.
I don't think a lot of patients are as lucky as I've been. I mean, I had an early diagnosis, I had a phenomenal surgeon. They took care of it and my recovery's been terrific.
Linda is active again… biking, hiking, and skiing with her family. For WebMD, I'm Damon Meharg.
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