When you google “DVA and stroke” or some other equally silly search string, reports will come up. The hypochondriac in us is always searching for the next imaginary calamity. You might have to do a bit of research these days, though, to find a brain surgeon willing to remove yours. An honest but tragic mistake - the result was a stroke, because the brain which the DVA served had no other vein to turn to. In fact, when DVAs were first discovered, and their necessary role in drainage of normal brain was yet unknown, some surgeons have gone ahead and removed them, mistankenly thinking they were another kind of vascular anomaly called AVM. You are certainly better off worrying about the usual suspects that kill most of us - like hypertension, high cholesterol, obesity, smoking, cancer, drunk driving, fentanyl-laced powder - even lightning in the sky, rather than your friendly inner DVA child.Ībout 50 years ago there was a way - you could have your DVA taken out to see what happens. How often does this happen? Pretty much never - a DVA is a very hard-working and diligent inner child. However, in the extremely rare instance when a DVA stops doing its job well - say because of a clot in it or some other astonishingly rare thing - there is usually no other vein to come to rescue. DVAs are inflexible - the vast majority of DVAs will faithfully work on draining their brain territory without pause or complaint all life long. Seriously, though, that’s a very good thing - any biologic system designed with flexibility has advantage. Our veins are the same way - they are built with tremendous flexibility - if one malfunctions or gives up, another one will usually be right there to pick up the slack. Adults are “flexible” - we rationalize and “reason” our way through all kinds of choices ranging from unpleasant to unfair to much worse. The fact is, just like children can be so endearingly stubborn and inflexible (right?), so are the DVAs. In fact, more than any “normal” adult vein. What do veins do - they take blood back from the brain and help return it to the heart, so it continues on its rounds through your body as long as your own particular heart continues to keep you alive.ĭo I need my DVA? Maybe I don’t care to be in touch with my inner child - I just want it out of my system They work just as hard as any goody-two-shoe proper veins of good family stock do. There are no reports of DVAs in the spinal cord, however our equipment is not good enough yet to see it in necessary detail. At least 5% of adults have themĪnywhere there is brain. The better our MRI machines become, the more of them we see. Why they felt like staying forever young we don’t know, but they did - and from our muggle adult perspective we call these Neverland veins “anomalies” At least most of them - except for the few that stubbornly refused to evolve, and so are forever stuck in the early “developmental” stage. As we grew from a fraction of an inch to a very respectable 2-3 inches, our brain veins changed a lot, pretty close to what they are like now. Back then, when the brain was just beginning to form, its veins were very different from what they are now. It is a peculiar vein which goes back in time to when we were tiny little embryos, about a fifth of an inch (5mm) long. However, the exceptions are rare.ĭVA or Developmental Venous Anomaly is pretty much what it sounds like. Of course, there are exceptions and I’m not just saying that for “cover”. The answers, almost always, are that the DVAs are not dangerous and have nothing to do with symptoms that prompted the MRI. The two natural questions are: what is a DVA and how safe or dangerous is it, and does the DVA have anything to do with my symptoms. The typical history is someone has an MRI done for whatever reason (headache, dizziness, etc.) and a DVA is found. We see many patients with incidentally discovered Developmental Venous Anomalies or DVAs.
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