Functional impairments for outcomes in a randomized trial of unruptured brain AVMs

{Objective: To investigate the effects of medical vs interventional management on functional outcome in A Randomized Trial of Unruptured Brain Arteriovenous Malformations (ARUBA). Methods: We used the initial results of a nonblinded, randomized, controlled, parallel-group trial involving adults >= 18 years of age with an unruptured brain arteriovenous malformation (AVM) to compare the effects of medical management (MM) with or without interventional therapy (IT) on functional impairment, defined by a primary outcome of death or symptomatic stroke causing modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score >= 2. ARUBA closed recruitment on April 15, 2013. Results: After a median of 33.3 months of follow-up (interquartile range 16.3-49.8 months), of the 223 enrolled in the trial, those in the MM arm were less likely to experience primary outcomes with an mRS score >= 2 than those who underwent IT. The results applied for both those as randomized (MM n = 109 vs IT n = 114) (hazard ratio [HR] 0.25, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.11-0.57