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At the Neurovascular Center of Excellence, we treat health problems of the brain's blood vessels in babies to young adults.
Our caring team at UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh takes the time to explain your child's health issues. We'll also lay out treatment options, next steps, and what to expect during treatment.
An AVM is a tangle of small blood vessels in the brain. AVMs cause the blood to flow directly from an artery into a vein. This can reduce the blood flow further down the artery and cause the blood vessel to burst.
If your child shows signs of an AVM having burst, take them to the nearest emergency room. Rapid treatment is crucial.
AVM rupture symptoms can include:
There are different types of AVMs, with the vein of Galen malformation being among the most severe.
The first step of an AVM diagnosis is an angiogram. The doctor will inject dye into the blood vessels and take x-rays. The x-ray shows how blood flows through the brain.
Sometimes doctors inject glue during an angiogram. This helps decrease the risk of bleeding during further treatment.
Even when an AVM hasn't burst, it poses a risk of bleeding. The short-term bleeding risk is low, but the long-term risk is high.
Doctors suggest either surgery or radiation to treat an AVM.
With surgery, they remove your child's AVM.
In some cases, doctors may use targeted radiation for an AVM that's:
A CCM is a mass of abnormal and thin-walled blood vessels in the brain.
Many CCMs won't cause any problems. But some can rupture and cause symptoms.
Even in those that burst, the bleeding is often minimal and not life-threatening.
Our expert team uses MRI to check your child's CCM for bleeding and growth over time. Sometimes, we'll wait and see to watch the issue and make sure it remains stable.
For CCMs that continue to bleed or grow, we'll suggest surgery to remove them. Doctors mostly do CCM surgery at least a few weeks after the brain starts bleeding.
We'll take time to explain all treatment options and why we suggest one over another.
Moyamoya is a rare health issue by which one or more main arteries to the brain narrow. This reduces blood flow to the brain.
Moyamoya can cause:
Because moyamoya gets worse over time, it's vital to catch and treat it early to decrease your child's risk of stroke.
The Neurovascular Center at UPMC Children's Hospital is one of the few centers that does pial synangiosis surgery, sometimes called indirect bypass.
This surgery reroutes healthy blood vessels from the scalp back to the brain. It allows new blood vessels to grow and supply blood flow to the brain.
If diagnosed early, many children with moyamoya can live long and healthy lives.
A brain aneurysm is a bulge in a blood vessel in the brain.
This bulge can burst and cause bleeding in the brain.
Our team performs an angiogram to see how blood flows into and out of the aneurysm.
We use imaging to keep an eye on small aneurysms over time.
Large or growing aneurysms need surgery because they can burst in the future.
Our expert surgeons send tiny instruments through the blood vessel to place a coil or mesh tube. This way, blood doesn't flow into the aneurysm.
We'll follow your child closely to assess healing and prevent future problems with blood flow in the brain.
Retinoblastoma is a cancer of the retina at the back of the eye.
Our surgeons direct medicine to the blood vessel behind the eye to treat it.
This increases the success of the medicine and reduces side effects.
Learn about the Pediatric Stroke Program at UPMC Children's.
If your child shows signs of stroke, take them to the closest hospital right away. Swift treatment is crucial.
We treat stroke with advanced surgery, medicine, or both based on what will work best for your child.
We also work to learn the reason for the stroke.
And we'll follow up with you and your child to assess their healing and prevent future blood vessel problems.
Children's Hospital's main campus is located in the Lawrenceville neighborhood. Our main hospital address is:
UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh One Children’s Hospital Way 4401 Penn Ave. Pittsburgh, PA 15224
In addition to the main hospital, Children's has many convenient locations in other neighborhoods throughout the greater Pittsburgh region.
With MyCHP, you can request appointments, review test results, and more.
For questions about a hospital bill call:
To pay your bill online, please visit UPMC's online bill payment system.
Interested in giving to Children's Hospital? Support the hospital by making a donation online, joining our Heroes in Healing monthly donor program, or visiting our site to learn about the other ways you can give back.