Liquid embolic agents in the treatment of intracranial arteriovenous malformations

The enclovascular treatment of cerebral arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) has advanced greatly in the four decades since Luessenhop and Spence first described the use of silastic spheres to embolize an AVM. The innovations have been in the agents used to embolize as well as in the devices used to deliver the agent to the AVM. Endovascular therapies have helped to decrease operative morbidity by making it easier for the surgeon to resect the AVM and, in some cases, by eliminating the need for surgery altogether. The benefit of size reduction not only benefits the surgical treatment of AVMs but improves the efficacy of stereotactic radiosurgery. The authors expect that the future will bring continued advances; with such advances, the morbidity associated with AVM treatment should drop even lower.