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The article focuses on the proposed changes to the training recommendations of the World Federation of Interventional and Therapeutic Neuroradiology in neurointerventional techniques. Trainees from radiology, neurosurgery and neurology can acquire qualifications for interventional neuroradiology during a fellowship of 2-3 years. Program directors are required to certify the competence of trainees. Specific training applies to trainees who are accredited residency in radiology or neurology.

We report 14 consecutive children with 23 posterior cranial fossa arteriovenous fistula (AVF); six had multifocal lesions, involving the supratentorial brain in three and the spinal cord in one. There were two boys and four girls with a family history compatible with hereditary haemorrhagic telangiectasia. The diagnosis was made in infancy in eight cases and in a further six before the age of 12 years; mean age at diagnosis was 3.5 years. The male-to-female ratio was 1.8:1. Presenting features were macrocrania in four cases, haemorrhage or headache in three and nonhaemorrhagic neurological deficits or and cardiac overload in two. Dominant supply to the symptomatic fistula arose from the posterior inferior cerebellar artery in five cases, anterior inferior cerebellar artery in two and the upper basilar artery system in seven. All children were primarily treated by transarterial embolisation. We treated thirteen children (93%) by transarterial embolisation alone; one older child with a history of haemorrhage also underwent radiosurgery. We obtained 100% exclusion of the fistula(e) in six children, 95-80% in five, 80-50% in one and <50% in one. Of the incompletely treated cases, three had conservative management, and two with 80% and one with 60% reduction of their lesion are scheduled for elective treatment; two partially treated case died. There was no morbidity due to the endovascular procedures. Follow-up since referral is 6 months–10 years (mean 4.5 years). Ten children are neurologically normal, two have persistent (pre-existing) neurological deficits and two are dead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report a case of symptomatic symmetrical, bilateral absence of the cavernous internal carotid (ICA) and transdural vertebral artery (VA) segments with formation of a rete mirabile. There have been similar reports in Asian patients; ours is the first in the Western population. A 29- year-old woman presented with recurrent temporary blindness and an episode of minor subarachnoid haemorrhage. Angiography demonstrated absence of the C5 and C6 segments of the ICA and the C1/2 segments of the VA bilaterally, with typical carotid rete mirabile formation to reconstitute the distal flow. Comparative anatomy and embryology show retia in several species and point to their secondary origin. The anomalies of the ICA cannot be called agenesis but rather absence since they are likely to result from perinatal disappearance of the artery rather its failure to develop. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]