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A182 The psychosocial and functional impact of an unruptured AVM diagnosis: a mixed-methods exploratory analysis

neurintsurg · 2025-09-02 · canonical JSON source

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Introduction The psychosocial profile of patients diagnosed with an unruptured arteriovenous malformation (AVM) remains undetermined. We have provided a qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the psychosocial effects following an AVM diagnosis with the aim to guide neurosurgical clinical practice to tailor patient needs.Aim of Study We aimed to explore the patient, disease and service-level factors that may influence the psychosocial and functional impact of an unruptured AVM diagnosis through a mixed-methods approach.Method Data was collected retrospectively regarding patient background from the centre’s electronic health record. Data included patients diagnosed with an unruptured AVM at our centre over a 24-month period from November 2021 to November 2023. This included age, sex, and previous psychiatric history. Included patients underwent a semi-structured telephone interview about their diagnosis process, clinical experiences and completed the SF-36 and HADS questionnaires to assess QoL. Statistical analysis was performed on SF-36.Results All sub-domains of the HADS and SF-36 questionnaires were found to be significantly worse as compared to UK normative data. Previous psychiatric history was found to be significantly associated with a worsened score in the HADS Anxiety sub-domain (p=0.024) as well energy (p=0.001), social function (p= 0.03) and general health (p=0.04) SF-36 subdomains. Thematic analysis revealed key themes of functional impact, psychological impact, diagnosis and explanation, access to information and follow-up care.Conclusion This study identifies a significant psychosocial and functional burden on those diagnosed with an unruptured AVM. Our analysis provide potential avenues in mitigating this effect and tailoring neurosurgical practice to improve patient care.Conflict of Interest No