Beyond Resection: Determinants of Outcome After Pediatric Brain Arteriovenous Malformation Surgery

Background and Objectives: brain arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) are a leading cause of spontaneous intracranial hemorrhage in children and carry a disproportionately high lifetime hemorrhagic risk. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively analyzed clinical, morphological, and surgical factors associated with functional outcome in 30 consecutive pediatric patients (≤18 years) who underwent microsurgical AVM resection at a single tertiary neurosurgical center between January 2015 and December 2025. Results: Functional status was assessed with the modified Rankin Scale (mRS) at hospital discharge and at 6–9 months of follow-up; the Wilcoxon signed-rank test, Mann–Whitney U test, Fisher’s exact test, Spearman correlation, and univariable logistic regression were used for analysis. Complete resection on early postoperative CT angiography was documented in all 30 patients (100%). The proportion with a favorable outcome (mRS 0–2) improved significantly from 50.0% at discharge to 76.7% at follow-up (p < 0.0001); 80.8% of survivors improved by at least one mRS point, and none deteriorated. In univariable analysis, the variable most strongly associated with poor outcome was intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH; odds ratio [OR] 28.5, 95% CI 2.65–306.6; p = 0.002); the wide confidence interval reflects the small number of events and precludes a precise estimate of effect size. Lower admission Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score (p = 0.0006), higher Supplemented Spetzler–Martin (S–M) grade (p = 0.019), and postoperative complications (p = 0.016) were likewise associated with poor outcome. Because these associations are univariable and unadjusted for confounding, they should be regarded as exploratory and hypothesis-generating rather than as independent predictors. All four deaths occurred in malformations in eloquent locations (p = 0.037). Microsurgical resection achieved complete resection on early postoperative CT angiography in all patients; however, functional recovery appeared to be associated primarily with the severity of the initial hemorrhagic insult—particularly IVH—and with lesion complexity rather than with the achievement of angiographic resection alone. Conclusions: Given the small, surgically selected cohort and the limited follow-up, these findings require confirmation in larger multicenter studies.