Spinal arteriovenous malformation: use of intraoperative color Doppler ultrasonography guidance for surgical resection. Case report

Spinal arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) may be associated with sensory and motor deficits, bowel or bladder dysfunction, radicular pain or deficit, and back pain. Hemorrhage can occur in the parenchyma leading to the acute onset of symptoms. Neurosurgical resection is one of the way of treatment. Several techniques including intraoperative angiography, dye-injection and the micro Doppler method have proven to be useful during the surgical resection of spinal vascular lesions. Herein, we report our experience with intraoperative ultrasonography (IOUS) and color Doppler ultrasonography guidance for visualizing a spinal cord AVM during surgery. IOUS is a time-saving and noninvasive method for intraoperative imaging of spinal AVM.