VASCULAR MALFORMATIONS

During the last half of the 20th century, many improvements in neurosurgical care emanated directly from developments in neuroimaging. These developments have advanced the understanding of both normal and abnormal states of the central nervous system. The digital information collected with modern computer-dependent neuroimaging techniques, once utilized only for planning operations, can now be manipulated and updated during therapeutic procedures. Neurosurgery is approaching the point where the operating room will not only function as the place where treatment is administered based on previously gathered information but also the entire treatment will be modified based on computerized anatomic and physiologic data gathered continuously during procedures. This paradigm exists, in part, already and is used increasingly in all realms of neurosurgery, including the evaluation and treatment of vascular malformations and lesions of the central nervous system. Therefore, although computer technology has primarily impacted the diagnostic evaluation of vascular malformations through advancements in neuroimaging, it has also impacted their treatment.