Bursting AVM in infancy: A case report

The authors report a case of three-month-old boy who suffered a subarachnoid hemorrhage and was admitted to our hospital. A neuroimaging study suggested a partially thrombosed cerebral aneurysm, and extirpation to prevent rebleeding was performed at the subacute stage. The postoperative pathological diagnosis was arteriovenous malformation (AVM), which yielded a discrepancy between pre- and intraoperative findings. Total removal of the lesion was confirmed on postoperative examination, and the patient was discharged without any complications. Subarachnoid hemorrhage is more commonly due to an AVM than to cerebral aneurysm in childhood hemorrhagic stroke, but its onset in infancy is very rare. The AVM was safely removed because of the lack of an arteriovenous shunt. AVM is a differential diagnosis for preoperative images showing cerebral aneurysms.