Cavernomas – Vascular Malfunction

Cavernomas also known as cavernous angiomas, cavernous haemangioma or cerebral cavernous are vascular malfunctions comprising of a tangle of vessels or abnormal blood vessels which resemble a blackberry, found in the brain and the spinal cord.

It looks like a blackberry which is filled with blood that flows slowly through vessels which are like caverns and vary in size from a few millimetres to several centimetres. The most reliable test in diagnosing a cavernoma is a magnetic resonance imaging – MRI.

Majority of the cases diagnosed with cavernomas report no history of family link though many are present at birth while in others, there is a family link. Those who have more than one cavernoma are likely to have inherited factor and when the condition has been inherited, half of the family will be having a cavernoma. The risk of anyone in the family having a cavernoma is fifty percent if there have been a number of family members who have been diagnosed with a cavernoma.

Leaky Blood Vessels - Seizures

At times there could be definite family history but there could be a possibility of a family history if a number of family members have had small strokes or epilepsy. Anyone can be a victim of cavernoma and often there does not seem to be any health issue.

Cavernomas can be diagnosed in young adults and both male as well as females are likely to have this ailment. The cells which line a cavernoma are same to those lining the normal blood vessels though they are leaky and may cause seizures, which is the most common symptom that can be treated with medication. The person may also suffer from stroke which is due to the bleeding in the brain.

Monitoring the Symptoms – Essential

The symptoms of this ailment may vary in severity and sometimes bleeding may cause no symptoms at all since the leak of the blood is very small. People suffering from this condition may experience a sense of weakness, numbness, double vision or slurred speech though these could also be symptoms of other conditions and may not be connected to the cavernoma.

As the cavernoma changes in size when it bleeds and reabsorbs blood, symptoms may come and go. Hence monitoring the symptoms is most essential as new symptoms like a stroke could indicate that the cavernoma is bleeding. People who may have had a stroke due to cavernoma are more likely to face another one in the future than people who did not have any symptoms.

Neosurgery/Sterotactic Radiotherapy 

Women who have cavernomas which have already bled are at greater risk of further bleeding than men and the risk of a second bleed from a cavernoma reduces over a period of time. To treat this ailment, surgery could be used on cavernomas which have bled or could be causing seizures which cannot be controlled with medication.

Some of the types of treatment used in the UK include neurosurgery wherein the surgery in done under general anaesthetic to remove the cavernoma, sterotactic radiotherapy done with many low energy beams of radiation which are focused at the cavernoma at one time without the use of anaesthetic.