Acquired pial arteriovenous fistula following cerebral vein thrombosis.

BACKGROUND: We report a unique case of an acquired pial arteriovenous fistula occurring after an asymptomatic thrombosis of a superficial cerebral vein.

CASE DESCRIPTION: A cerebral angiogram performed in a 51-year-old man with subarachnoid hemorrhage revealed a 10-mm ruptured anterior communicating artery aneurysm and a thrombosed left superficial middle cerebral vein. Coil embolization of the anterior communicating aneurysm was performed. Follow-up angiography 18 months later revealed a new, asymptomatic, pial arteriovenous fistula between the previously thrombosed left superficial middle cerebral vein and a small sylvian branch of the left middle cerebral artery.

CONCLUSIONS: This case provides evidence that pial arteriovenous fistulas may develop as acquired lesions and furthermore may rarely follow cerebral vein thrombosis. Several cases of dural arteriovenous fistulas, as well as a single case of a mixed pial-dural arteriovenous fistula, occurring after dural sinus thrombosis have been reported previously. However, to our knowledge, this is the first report of an acquired pial arteriovenous fistula following a cerebral vein thrombosis.