Abstract
Arteriovenous malformation (abbreviated as AVM hereafter) is defined as appearance of AV fistula as a remnant of the vascular system during the developmental stage, and this AV fistula without capillary bed provides a direct communication route between peripheral artery and venous vessels. AVM rarely occurs in the head and neck area. As we experienced one case of AVM occuring in the masseter, we will report it in this paper with some findings. A 38-year-old male visited our department in October 1995 with a chief complaint of pulsating tumor in the left cheek, which he had noticed since 1988. CT and MRI revealed a tumorous lesion rich in vascular tangle with the mandibular artery as the main supplying blood vessel. Under the diagnosis of AVM, it was resected surgically in Feburuary 1996. AVM is often treated by 1) operation, 2) occlusion of the supplying blood vessel, and 3) ligation. Occlusion is effective for prevention of massive bleeding associated with operation. However, since colateral blood vessels are formed after occlusion of the blood vessel, occlusion alone is difficult to eliminate the lesion, and thus total resection is needed.
