Quality of life and disability 12 months after surgery vs. conservative management for unruptured brain arteriovenous malformations: Scottish population-based and Australian hospital-based studies

Background: Few data are available on disability and quality of life (QOL) after surgery versus conservative management for unruptured brain arteriovenous malformations (uAVMs).

Objective: The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that QOL and disability are worse after surgery ± preoperative embolisation for uAVM compared with conservative management.

Methods: We included consecutive patients diagnosed with uAVM from a prospective population-based study in Scotland (1999–2003; 2006–2010) and a prospective hospital-based series in Australia (2011–2015). We assessed outcomes on the modified Rankin Scale (mRS) and the Short Form (SF)-36 at ~ 12 months after surgery or conservative treatment and compared these groups using continuous ordinal regression in the two cohorts separately.

Results: Surgery was performed for 29% of all uAVM cases diagnosed in Scotland and 84% of all uAVM referred in Australia. There was no statistically significant difference between surgery and conservative management at 12 months among 79 patients in Scotland (mean SF-36 Physical Component Score (PCS) 39 [SD 14] vs. 39 [SD 13]; mean SF-36 Mental Component Score (MCS) 38 [SD 14] vs. 39 [SD 14]; mRS > 1, 24 vs. 9%), nor among 37 patients in Australia (PCS 51 [SD 10] vs. 49 [SD 6]; MCS 48 [SD 12] vs. 49 [SD 10]; mRS > 1, 19 vs. 30%). In the Australian series, there was no statistically significant change in the MCS and PCS between baseline before surgery or conservative management and 12 months.

Conclusions: We did not find a statistically significant difference between surgery ± preoperative embolisation and conservative management in disability or QOL at 12 months.