• Bixia Chen, Sophia Göricke, Karsten Wrede, Ramazan Jabbarli, Thomas Wälchli, Max Jägersberg, Ulrich Sure, and Philipp Dammann.
• Department of Neurosurgery, University Hospital Essen, Essen, Germany. Electronic address: bixia.chen@uk-essen.de.
• World Neurosurg. 2017 Jul 1; 103: 138-144.

BackgroundCerebral cavernous malformations (CCM) can cause intracerebral hemorrhage. The lesions themselves are frequently associated with perifocal hemosiderin deposits caused by repetitive microhemorrhages. Main indications for a surgical treatment are recurrent symptomatic hemorrhages or cavernoma-related epilepsy. After surgical resection, follow-up magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is usually performed to confirm 1) the complete resection of the CCM and, especially in cases of cavernoma-related epilepsy, 2) the complete resection of the hemosiderin deposits.MethodsThis prospective study evaluates the value of early postoperative MRI (within 72 hours) regarding the detection of CCM or hemosiderin remnants compared with a standard 3-6 months postoperative MRI control in 61 CCM cases.ResultsSensitivity of early postoperative MRI for CCM remnant detection was 66.67% (95% confidence interval [CI], 9.43%-99.16%), specificity was 76.74% (95% CI, 61.37%-88.24%), positive predictive value was 16.67% (95% CI, 2.09%-48.41%), and negative predictive value was 97.06% (95% CI, 84.67%-99.93%). Because of the high number of patients who could not be evaluated because of imaging artifacts, sensitivity and specificity analysis was not performed for early postoperative MRI using T2*/susceptibility-weighted imaging to assess hemosiderin remnants. Sensitivity of early postoperative MRI for hemosiderin remnant detection using T2-weighted sequences was 85.71% (95% CI, 63.66%-96.95%), specificity was 66.67% (95% CI, 44.68%-84.37%), positive predictive value was 69.23% (95% CI, 55.45%-80.27%), and negative predictive value was 84.21% (95% CI, 64.31%-94.04%).ConclusionsOur data suggest that early postoperative MRI after CCM surgery is often hampered by imaging artifacts creating false-positive results and therefore ineligible for a resection control. However, reliability of a negative result on early postoperative T2-weighted MRI is relatively high regarding both CCM and hemosiderin remnants.Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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