The ARUBA trial: current status, future hopes.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Report on the status of an on-going National Institutes of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)-supported clinical trial of management of unbled brain arteriovenous malformations. SUMMARY OF REVIEW: Begun in April 2007 with 3 centers, the trial has grown to 65 centers, and has randomized 124 patients through mid-June 2010 en route to the planned 400. The current literature continues to support the rationale for the trial. CONCLUSIONS: ARUBA is steadily approaching its monthly randomization goals and has already reached the number needed to test the maximum published interventional complication rates against the minimum hemorrhage rates for natural history.