Background: Arteriovenous fistulae of the major branches of the aorta can cause refractory congestive heart failure and it's surgical repair can be mortal due to severe bleeding.

Methods: Fifteen patients aged between 8 and 56 years were operated for arteriovenous fistulae between 1985 and 2000. Ten of them were male and the rest female. Trauma was the major cause (60%) of arteriovenous fistulae, where congenital (26.7%) and iatrogenic causes (13.3%) were the other etiologic factors. Nine of them originated from iliac or femoral arteries, four of them from subclavian artery or it's branches, one from carotid artery and the last from vertebral artery. All of them were diagnosed using arteriography or MRI-angio. An associated false aneurysm was detected in five patients. Primer closure was applied in six patients (40%), graft interposition in six patients (40%) and embolization in three patients (20%).

Results: There was no early or late mortality. We observed recurrence in two patients (13.3%), who were reoperated.

Conclusions: Embolization can be performed in the simple cases, but resection of the fistulae should be performed with/without graft interposition in complicated cases.

Keywords : Fistulae, embolization, graft interposition