Haemorrhage rates of ruptured and unruptured brain arteriovenous malformation after radiosurgery: a nationwide population-based cohort study

Objectives The present nationwide population-based cohort study aims to assess the effectiveness of gamma knife radiosurgery (GKS) on ruptured and unruptured brain arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) by evaluating the haemorrhage rates.Design A nationwide, retrospective cohort study.Setting Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD).Participants An observational study of 1515 patients who were diagnosed with brain AVMs between 1997 and 2013 from the Taiwan NHIRD.Primary outcome and secondary outcome measures We performed a survival analysis using the Kaplan-Meier method. Multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to explore the relationship between treatment modalities (GKS vs non-GKS) and haemorrhage, adjusted for age and sex.Results The GKS and non-GKS groups included 317 and 1198 patients, respectively. Patients in the GKS group (mean±SD, 33.08±15.48 years of age) tended to be younger than those in the non-GKS group (37.40±17.62) (p40 years of age (aHR 3.21; 95% CI 1.12 to 9.14).Conclusions GKS is safe and it reduces the risk of haemorrhage in patients with ruptured AVMs. The administration of GKS to patients with unruptured AVMs who are above the age of 40 years old male might increase the risk of haemorrhage.