Treatment for Brain Cavernoma: Lindsay’s Recovery Story | UW Medicine

Lindsay Ahmann, a promising Alpine skiing athlete, was on track to make the U.S. Ski Team when she started experiencing troubling symptoms: nerve pain in her shoulder and difficulty walking.

Eventually, Lindsay was diagnosed with a cavernous malfunction in her brain.

“They told me I had a cavernous malfunction, a cluster of blood vessels, and it had ruptured and was causing bleeding in my brain,” Lindsay recalled.

Cavernomas — also called cavernous malformations, cavernous hemangiomas and cerebral cavernous malformations (CCMs) — are abnormal clusters of closely packed capillaries (thin-walled blood vessels). These abnormal capillaries tend to clump together in a ball, making it hard for blood to flow through them.

Lindsay decided to meet with Dr. Louis J. Kim, Chief of Neurological Surgery at UW Medicine’s Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. Dr. Kim recommended that Lindsay undergo neurosurgery to treat her brain cavernoma.

“The good news about vascular neurosurgery is that a lot of this is curable diseases. It’s nice to be able to tell patients ‘Listen, this is something we can cure’,” said Dr. Kim.

The cavernoma surgery was performed by Dr. Kim, and was highly successful. By the next day, Lindsay was able to get out of bed and walk around.

After her cavernoma surgery, Lindsay found a passion for coaching ski athletes, which she says has brought joy back to her life.

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Learn more about brain cavernoma treatments at UW Medicine: https://uwmedicineneuro.org/cavernoma...