Surgical results in pediatric moyamoya disease: Angiographic revascularization and the clinical results

Objecive We retrospectively reviewed the pediatric patients with moyamoya disease (MMD) who underwent bypass surgery at our institution to compare the surgical results according to the surgical procedures. Patients and methods There were 24 total patients (age range: 2–15 years; mean age: 8.2 years). Twelve patients underwent encephalo-duro-arterio-synangiosis (EDAS) on 16 sides, 5 patients underwent encephalo-duro-arterio-myo-synangiosis (EDAMS) on 8 sides and 7 patients underwent combined superficial temporal artery–middle cerebral artery (STA–MCA) anastomosis with EDAMS (STA–MCA–EDAMS) on 12 sides. The postoperative results were evaluated between 4 months and 5 years following surgery in terms of the angiographic revascularization and the clinical outcome. Results EDAMS, regardless of the combined STA–MCA anastomosis, was significantly effective for achieving a good extent of the postoperative angiographic revascularization as compared with simple EDAS (P < 0.05). STA–MCA–EDAMS tended to be better with respective to the relief of preoperative ischemic symptoms as compared with simple EDAS, although there was no significant statistical difference. Conclusion These results suggest that EDAMS with or without the combination of STA–MCA anastomosis was very useful for the formation of collateral circulation in comparison with simple EDAS for treating the pediatric patients with MMD, although these findings were not well correlated with the clinical outcomes.