SPONTANEOUS ARTERIOVENOUS ANEURYSMS OF THE THORAX

Abstract

Beevor, in 1832, was the first to describe spontaneous arteriovenous aneurysm of the thorax. Since that time there have been but two comprehensive reviews of the reported cases, Pepper and Griffith making the first, in 1890. These authors not only collected reports of 28 cases and added 1 of their own but laid down diagnostic criteria that have never been surpassed. In 1925 the second detailed review appeared, when Shennan reported 2 cases of his own and collected reports of 72 others. In the latter report a short summary of each case was given whenever the clinical record was accessible. Since 1925 a number of authors have reported cases, with references to the literature, bringing the total number of cases to 98. We are adding 2 cases of our own and reports of 79 others in which the records are available, 24 of which were not included in either previous