Arteriovenous malformation of the posterior ethmoidal artery as an unusual cause of amaurosis fugax. The ophthalmic steal syndrome.

We report the case of a patient with arteriovenous malformation fed by a posterior ethmoidal artery. The pre-operative amaurotic attacks on the diseased eye subsided after removal of the malformation. Doppler sonographic examination of the peripheral ophthalmic artery showed an inversion of the blood flow direction postoperatively. We describe a concept of an ophthalmic steal syndrome treated in this patient by removal of an arteriovenous malformation.