What is Venous Angioma, Symptoms and Treatment

Content:

Venous angioma, also called developmental venous anomaly, is a benign congenital change in the brain characterized by malformation and abnormal accumulation of some veins in the brain that are usually larger than normal.

In most cases, venous angioma causes no symptoms and is therefore detected by chance when a person has a CT scan or MRI scan of the brain for another reason. As it is considered benign and causes no symptoms, venous angioma does not require any treatment.

Despite this, venous angioma can be serious when it causes symptoms such as seizures, neurological problems, or bleeding, and must be surgically removed. Surgery to cure venous angioma is only performed in these cases because there is a greater risk of sequelae, depending on the location of the angioma.

Symptoms of venous angioma

Venous angioma usually causes no symptoms, however in some cases a person may experience a headache. In rarer cases where the venous angioma is more extensive or compromises the correct functioning of the brain, it is possible that other symptoms such as seizures, vertigo, tinnitus, numbness on one side of the body, vision or hearing problems, tremors or decreased sensitivity, for example.

As it does not cause symptoms, venous angioma is only identified when the doctor requests an imaging test, such as a computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging of the brain, to diagnose migraine, for example.

How should the treatment be?

Due to the fact that venous angioma does not cause symptoms and is benign, in most cases it is not necessary to carry out specific treatment, only medical follow-up. However, when symptoms are observed, in addition to follow-up, the neurologist may recommend the use of medications for their relief, including anticonvulsants.

Possible sequelae and complications

Complications of venous angioma are usually related to the degree of malformation and location of the angioma, in addition to being more common as a result of surgery. Thus, according to the location of the venous angioma, the possible sequelae are:

If surgery is necessary, the sequelae of venous angioma, which vary according to its location, can be:

  • Located in the frontal lobe : there may be difficulty or inability to perform more specific movements, such as pressing a button or holding a pen, lack of motor coordination, difficulty or inability to express oneself by speaking or writing;
  • Located in the parietal lobe : may result in problems or loss of sensation, difficulty or inability to recognize and identify objects;
  • Located in the temporal lobe : there may be hearing problems or hearing loss, difficulty or inability to recognize and identify common sounds, difficulty or inability to understand what others are saying;
  • Located in the occipital lobe : there may be visual problems or loss of vision, difficulty or inability to recognize and visually identify objects, difficulty or inability to read from not recognizing letters;
  • Located in the cerebellum : there may be problems with balance, lack of coordination of voluntary movements.

Because surgery is associated with complications, it is only recommended when there is evidence of cerebral hemorrhage, when the angioma is associated with other brain lesions, or when the seizures that arise as a result of this angioma are not resolved with the use of medication.