Ataxia and migraine-like headache in a girl with a cerebellar developmental venous anomaly

Cerebral developmental venous anomalies (DVAs) are generally considered as anatomical variants of the venous system without clinical importance. We report the case of a 15-year-old girl with recurrent episodes of migraine-like headache who presented with subacute vertigo and ataxia associated with intense occipital pain. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed a DVA with signal modifications of the surrounding brain parenchyma in the left cerebellar hemisphere. The patient's ataxia regressed completely within about 2 months. On a follow-up MRI 4 years later the venous malformation and the parenchymal abnormalities were unchanged. We attribute the patient's focal neurological dysfunction to regional changes in the brain parenchyma, possibly secondary to venous hypertension. Our report provides evidence that also uncomplicated DVAs can become symptomatic and supports the role of the venous congestion within the DVA territory in pathogenesis of some brain parenchymal abnormalities associated with DVAs.