High importance
Sep 6, 2026
To compare outcomes of microsurgical resection versus conservative management for unruptured brain arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) using post-ARUBA evidence.
A systematic review and meta-analysis of studies focusing on patients with unruptured brain AVMs, reviewing outcomes related to microsurgical resection and conservative management.
Evidence suggests that microsurgical resection may lead to different outcomes in AVM management than conservative strategies, although specific statistics on efficacy and safety need further elucidation.
The review may include variability in study methodologies, patient populations, and a potential lack of long-term follow-up data across assessed studies.
Understanding the implications of surgical versus conservative treatment can significantly influence clinical decision-making and patient outcomes in managing unruptured brain AVMs.
UNLABELLED: No prior meta-analysis has isolated microsurgical resection as the primary intervention and directly compared pooled outcomes against conservative management using post-ARUBA evidence. OBJECTIVE: To compare stroke, death, and functional disability following microsurgical resection versus conservative management in patients with unruptured brain arteriovenous malformations (AVMs). METHODS: A PROSPERO-registered systematic review and meta-analysis (CRD420261354328) searched six databases from January 2014 through March 2026. Fourteen studies met inclusion criteria across two analytic tracks. Track A was a pairwise meta-analysis of hazard ratios for stroke or death comparing microsurgical resection against concurrent conservative management arms (k = 3), and Track B was single-arm proportion pooling benchmarked against the ARUBA conservative arm (k = 5-9 by outcome). REML estimation with Hartung-Knapp adjustment was applied throughout. RESULTS: Functional disability (modified Rankin Scale ≥2) occurred in 9.6% of microsurgical resection patients (95% CI 6.3-14.2%; I2 = 0%; k = 5, three countries) versus 15.1% in the ARUBA conservative arm. Angiographic obliteration was achieved in 97.7% (95% CI 95.5-98.8%; k = 9). Track A demonstrated a 61% reduction in stroke or death hazard favoring microsurgical resection (HR 0.39, 95% CI 0.10-1.44; p = 0.090; I2 = 0%; k = 3), consistent across sensitivity analyses (HR range 0.35-0.36). The pooled stroke or death rate was 3.7% (95% CI 1.0-12.7%; k = 8) versus the ARUBA benchmark of 10.1%. CONCLUSIONS: In patients with low-grade, surgically favorable AVMs, microsurgical resection was associated with near-complete AVM obliteration and with rates of disability, stroke, and death below ARUBA benchmarks; findings do not extend to unselected or higher-grade lesions. These findings are hypothesis-generating and warrant confirmation in prospective trials such as TOBAS.