BMC’s Yawkey building doors are now closed as an entrance as part of our ongoing efforts to enhance our campus and provide you with the best clinical care.

All patients and visitors on our main campus must enter our hospital via Shapiro, Menino, or Moakley buildings, where they will be greeted by team members at a new centralized check-in desk before continuing to the hospital. We are excited to welcome you and appreciate your patience as we improve our facilities.

Spetzler Martin Grading Scale

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The Spetzler Martin Grading Scale estimates the risk of open neurosurgery for a patient with AVM, by evaluating AVM size, pattern of venous drainage, and eloquence of brain location. A Grade 1 AVM would be considered as small, superficial, and located in non-eloquent brain, and low risk for surgery. Grade 4 or 5 AVM are large, deep, and adjacent to eloquent brain. Grade 6 AVM is considered not operable.

Note however, that this scale does not necessarily correlate with risk of treatment by embolization or radiosurgery.

Spetzler Martin Grading Scale

Size of AVM

Small (< 3 cm) 1
Medium (3-6 cm) 2
Large (> 6 cm) 3

Location

Noneloquent site 0
Eloquent site* 1

Venouse drainage

Superficial 0
Deep 1

*Sensorimotor, language, visual cortex, hypothalamus, thalamus, brain stem, cerebellar nuclei, or regions directly adjacent to these structures.

References