The most common signs/symptoms of DAVFs are:

1. Pulsatile tinnitus

2. Occipital bruit

3. Headache

4. Visual impairment

5. Papilledema

Pulsatile tinnitus is the most common symptom in patients, and it is associated with transverse-sigmoid sinus DAVFs. Carotid-cavernous DAVFs, on the other hand, are more closely associated with pulsatile exophthalmos. DAVFs may also be asymptomatic (e.g. cavernous sinus DAVFs).

Most commonly found adjacent to dural sinuses in the following locations:

1. Transverse (lateral) sinus, left-sided slightly more common than right

2. Intratentorial

3. From the posterior cavernous sinus, usually draining to the transverse or sigmoid sinuses

4. Vertebral artery (posterior meningeal branch)

Sinus pericranii typically present as soft palpable masses along midline skull, which may fluctuate in size depending on body positioning. Classically, these lesions are not associated with color change of the overlying skin, such as with other vascular lesions such as hemangioma.

CCF symptoms include bruit (a humming sound within the skull due to high blood flow through the arteriovenous fistula), progressive visual loss, and pulsatile proptosis or progressive bulging of the eye due to dilatation of the veins draining the eye. Pain is the symptom that patients often find the most difficult to tolerate.

Patients usually present with sudden or insidious onset of redness in one eye, associated with progressive proptosis or bulging.

They may have a history of similar episodes in the past.

Sinus pericranii (SP) is a rare disorder characterized by a congenital (or occasionally, acquired) epicranial venous malformation of the scalp. Sinus pericranii is an abnormal communication between the intracranial and extracranial venous drainage pathways. Treatment of this condition has mainly been recommended for aesthetic reasons and prevention of hemorrhage.

Carotid cavernous fistulae may form following closed or penetrating head trauma, surgical damage, rupture of an intracavernous aneurysm, or in association with connective tissue disorders, vascular diseases and dural fistulas.

Vein of Galen aneurysmal malformations (VGAM) and Vein of Galen aneurysmal dilations (VGAD) are the most frequent arteriovenous malformations in infants and fetuses. VGAM consist of a tangled mass of dilated vessels supplied by an enlarged artery. The malformation increases greatly in size with age, although the mechanism of the increase is unknown. Dilation of the great cerebral vein of Galen is a secondary result of the force of arterial blood either directly from an artery via an arteriovenous fistula or by way of a tributary vein that receives the blood directly from an artery. There is usually a venous anomaly downstream from the draining vein that, together with the high blood flow into the great cerebral vein of Galen causes its dilation. The right sided cardiac chambers and pulmonary arteries also develop mild to severe dilation.

Testing for a malformed vein of Galen is indicated when a patient has heart failure which has no obvious cause. Diagnosis is generally achieved by signs such as cranial bruits and symptoms such as expanded facial veins. The vein of Galen can be visualized using ultrasound or Doppler. A malformed Great Cerebral Vein will be noticeably enlarged. Ultrasound is a particularly useful tool for vein of Galen malformations because so many cases occur in infancy and ultrasound can make diagnoses prenatally. Many cases are diagnosed only during autopsy as congestive heart failure occurs very early.

The blockage of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) flow may also cause a syrinx to form, eventually leading to syringomyelia. Central cord symptoms such as hand weakness, dissociated sensory loss, and, in severe cases, paralysis may occur.

Syringomyelia is a chronic progressive degenerative disorder characterized by a fluid-filled cyst located in the spinal cord. Its symptoms include pain, weakness, numbness, and stiffness in the back, shoulders, arms or legs. Other symptoms include headaches, the inability to feel changes in the temperature, sweating, sexual dysfunction, and loss of bowel and bladder control. It is usually seen in the cervical region but can extend into the medulla oblongata and pons or it can reach downward into the thoracic or lumbar segments. Syringomyelia is often associated with Chiari malformation type I and is commonly seen between the C-4 and C-6 levels. The exact development of syringomyelia is unknown but many theories suggest that the herniated tonsils in Chiari malformation type I form a "plug" which does not allow an outlet of CSF from the brain to the spinal canal. Syringomyelia is present in 25% of patients with Chiari malformation.

Tarlov cysts are likely highly underdiagnosed as it was Isadore Tarlov's later research that led him to the understanding of their symptomology. Symptoms are based on the locations of the cysts along the spine, and follow general pathology of spinal injury:

- Pain

- Paresthesia

- Spasticity, Hypertonia

- Muscular Dysfunction or Weakness

- Radiculopathy

Although they are most frequently reported along sacral regions, they are rarely seen in other locations along the spine. Women are more likely to exhibit symptoms They can also appear in clusters or bilaterally along the spine, thus symptoms can be unilateral, bilateral, or with symptoms more dominant on one side. The cases of reported symptomatic Tarlov cysts ranges from 15% to 30% of the overall reported Tarlov cyst case, depending on the source of literature. Nevertheless, these cysts are important clinical entities because of their tendency to increase in size over time, potentially causing complications and eroding the surrounding bone tissue. Patients with symptomatic Tarlov cysts near the sacrum (and not other locations of the spine) can be divided into 4 categories, according to their experienced symptoms:

- Group 1 - Pain on tailbones that radiates to the legs with potential weakness;

- Group 2 - Pain on bones, legs, groin area, sexual dysfunctions, and dysfunctional bladder;

- Group 3 - Pain that radiate from the cyst site across hips to the lower abdomen;

- Group 4 - No pain, just sexual dysfunction and dysfunctional bladder.

All fast-flow malformations are malformations involving arteries. They constitute about 14% of all vascular malformations.

- Arterial malformation

- Arteriovenous fistula (AVF) : a lesion with a direct communication via fistulae between an artery and a vein.

- Arteriovenous malformation : a lesion with a direct connection between an artery and a vein, without an intervening capillary bed, but with an interposed nidus of dysplastic vascular channels in between.

Subdural hematomas are divided into acute, subacute, and chronic, depending on the speed of their onset. Acute subdural hematomas that are due to trauma are the most lethal of all head injuries and have a high mortality rate if they are not rapidly treated with surgical decompression.

Acute bleeds often develop after high speed acceleration or deceleration injuries and are increasingly severe with larger hematomas. They are most severe if associated with cerebral contusions. Though much faster than chronic subdural bleeds, acute subdural bleeding is usually venous and therefore slower than the typically arterial bleeding of an epidural hemorrhage. Acute subdural bleeds have a high mortality rate, higher even than epidural hematomas and diffuse brain injuries, because the force (acceleration/deceleration) required to cause them causes other severe injuries as well. The mortality rate associated with acute subdural hematoma is around 60 to 80%.

Chronic subdural bleeds develop over a period of days to weeks, often after minor head trauma, though such a cause is not identifiable in 50% of patients. They may not be discovered until they present clinically months or years after a head injury. The bleeding from a chronic bleed is slow, probably from repeated minor bleeds, and usually stops by itself. Since these bleeds progress slowly, they present the chance of being stopped before they cause significant damage. Small chronic subdural hematomas, those less than a centimeter wide, have much better outcomes than acute subdural bleeds: in one study, only 22% of patients with chronic subdural bleeds had outcomes worse than "good" or "complete recovery". Chronic subdural hematomas are common in the elderly.

Symptoms of subdural hemorrhage have a slower onset than those of epidural hemorrhages because the lower pressure veins bleed more slowly than arteries. Therefore, signs and symptoms may show up in minutes, if not immediately but can be delayed as much as 2 weeks. If the bleeds are large enough to put pressure on the brain, signs of increased ICP (intracranial pressure) or damage to part of the brain will be present.

Other signs and symptoms of subdural hematoma can include any combination of the following:

- A history of recent head injury

- Loss of consciousness or fluctuating levels of consciousness

- Irritability

- Seizures

- Pain

- Numbness

- Headache (either constant or fluctuating)

- Dizziness

- Disorientation

- Amnesia

- Weakness or lethargy

- Nausea or vomiting

- Loss of appetite

- Personality changes

- Inability to speak or slurred speech

- Ataxia, or difficulty walking

- Loss of muscle control

- Altered breathing patterns

- Hearing loss or hearing ringing (tinnitus)

- Blurred Vision

- Deviated gaze, or abnormal movement of the eyes.

Most people who develop SCSFLS feel the sudden onset of a severe and acute headache. It is a headache usually made worse by standing, typically becoming prominent throughout the day, with the pain becoming less severe when lying down. Orthostatic headaches can become chronic and disabling to the point of incapacitation. Some patients with SCSFLS will develop headaches that begin in the afternoon. This is known as "second-half-of-the-day headache". This may be an initial presentation of a spontaneous CSF leak or appear after treatment such as an epidural patch, and likely indicates a slow CSF leak.

Apart from headache, about 50% of patients experience neck pain or stiffness, nausea, and vomiting. Other symptoms include dizziness and vertigo, facial numbness or weakness, unusually blurry or double vision, neuralgia, fatigue, or a metallic taste in the mouth. Leaking CSF can sometimes be felt or observed as a discharge from the nose or ear.

Lack of CSF pressure and volume can allow the brain to sag and descend through the foramen magnum (large opening) of the occipital bone, at the base of the skull. The lower portion of the brain is believed to stretch or impact one or more cranial nerve complexes, thereby causing a variety of sensory symptoms. Nerves that can be affected and their related symptoms are detailed in the table at right.

Vascular malformation is a blood vessel abnormality. There are many types, but the most common is arteriovenous malformation.

It may cause aesthetic problems as it has a growth cycle and can continue to grow throughout life. This is also known as Vascular giantism or lymphangiomas.

Below are a list of commonly reported symptoms associated with sacral Tarlov cysts:

Back pain, perineal pain, secondary Sciatica, secondary piriformis muscle dysfunction with tertiary sciatica, Cauda equina syndrome, neurogenic claudication (pain caused by walking), neurogenic bladder, dysuria, urinary incontinence, coccygodynia, sacral radiculopathy, radicular pain, headaches, retrograde ejaculation, paresthesia, hypesthesia, secondary pelvic floor dysfunction, vaginismus, motor disorders in lower limbs and the genital, perineal, or lumbosacral areas, sacral or buttocks pain, vaginal or penile paraesthesia, Persistent Genital Arousal Disorder (PGAD) characterized by unwanted, unrelenting genital sensory awareness, itch or pain that can persist for days, months, even years), sensory changes over buttocks, perineal area, and lower extremity; difficulty walking; severe lower abdominal pain, bowel dysfunction, intestinal motility disorders like constipation or bowel incontinence.

Vascular malformation is a collective term for different disorders of the vasculature (errors in vascular development). It can be a disorder of the capillaries, arteries, veins and lymphatic vessels or a disorder of a combination of these (lesions are named based on the primary vessel that is malformed). A vascular malformation consists of a cluster of deformed vessels, due to an error in vascular development (dysmorphogenesis). However, endothelial turnover is stable in these defects. Congenital vascular malformations are always already present at birth, although they are not always visible. In contrast to vascular tumors, vascular malformations do not have a growth phase, nor an involution phase. Vascular malformations tend to grow proportionately with the child. Vascular malformations never regress, but persist throughout life.

Vascular malformations can be divided into slow-flow, fast-flow and complex-combined types.

SCSFLS is classified into two main types, cranial leaks and spinal leaks. The vast majority of leaks are spinal. Cranial leaks occur in the head. In some of these cases, CSF can be seen dripping out of the nose, or ear. Spinal leaks occur when one or more holes form in the dura along the spinal cord. Both cranial and spinal spontaneous CSF leaks cause neurological symptoms as well as spontaneous intracranial hypotension, diminished volume and pressure of the cranium. While referred to as "intracranial hypotension", the intracranial pressure may be normal, with the underlying issue instead being low-volume CSF. For this reason SCSFLS is referred to as "CSF hypovolemia" as opposed to "CSF hypotension".

Intracranial hemorrhage (ICH), also known as intracranial bleed, is bleeding within the skull. It includes intracerebral bleeds (intraventricular bleeds and intraparenchymal bleeds), subarachnoid bleeds, epidural bleeds, and subdural bleeds.

Intracerebral bleeding affects 2.5 per 10,000 people each year.

Subdural hematoma occurs when there is tearing of the bridging vein between the cerebral cortex and a draining venous sinus. At times they may be caused by arterial lacerations on the brain surface. Acute subdural hematomas are usually associated with cerebral cortex injury as well and hence the prognosis is not as good as extra dural hematomas. Clinical features depend on the site of injury and severity of injury. Patients may have a history of loss of consciousness but they recover and do not relapse. Clinical onset occurs over hours. A crescent shaped hemorrhage compressing the brain that does cross suture lines will be noted on CT of the head. Craniotomy and surgical evacuation is required if there is significant pressure effect on the brain.Complications include focal neurologic deficits depending on the site of hematoma and brain injury, increased intra cranial pressure leading to herniation of brain and ischemia due to reduced blood supply and seizures.

Just like berry aneurysm, an intracerebral arteriovenous fistula can rupture causing subarachnoid hemorrhage.

The signs and symptoms of diastematomyelia may appear at any time of life, although the diagnosis is usually made in childhood. Cutaneous lesions (or stigmata), such as a hairy patch, dimple, Hemangioma, subcutaneous mass, Lipoma or Teratoma override the affected area of the spine is found in more than half of cases. Neurological symptoms are nonspecific, indistinguishable from other causes of cord tethering. The symptoms are caused by tissue attachments that limit the movement of the spinal cord within the spinal column. These attachments cause an abnormal stretching of the spinal cord.

The course of the disorder is progressive. In children, symptoms may include the "stigmata" mentioned above and/or foot and spinal deformities; weakness in the legs; low back pain; scoliosis; and incontinence. In adulthood, the signs and symptoms often include progressive sensory and motor problems and loss of bowel and bladder control. This delayed presentation of symptoms is related to the degree of strain placed on the spinal cord over time.

Tethered spinal cord syndrome appears to be the result of improper growth of the neural tube during fetal development, and is closely linked to spina bifida.

Tethering may also develop after spinal cord injury and scar tissue can block the flow of fluids around the spinal cord. Fluid pressure may cause cysts to form in the spinal cord, a condition called syringomyelia. This can lead to additional loss of movement, feeling or the onset of pain or autonomic symptoms.

Cervical diastematomyelia can become symptomatic as a result of acute trauma, and can cause major neurological deficits, like hemiparesis, to result from otherwise mild trauma.

The following definitions may help to understand some of the related entities:

- Diastematomyelia (di·a·stem·a·to·my·elia) is a congenital anomaly, often associated with spina bifida, in which the spinal cord is split into halves by a bony spicule or fibrous band, each half being surrounded by a dural sac.

- Myeloschisis (my·elos·chi·sis) is a developmental anomaly characterized by a cleft spinal cord, owing to failure of the neural plate to form a complete neural tube or to rupture of the neural tube after closure.

- Diplomyelia (diplo.my.elia) is a true duplication of spinal cord in which these are two dural sacs with two pairs of anterior and posterior nerve roots.

A developmental venous anomaly (DVA, formerly known as venous angioma) is a congenital variant of the cerebral venous drainage. On imaging it is seen as a number of small deep parenchymal veins converging toward a larger collecting vein.

Adult presentation in diastematomyelia is unusual. With modern imaging techniques, various types of spinal dysraphism are being diagnosed in adults with increasing frequency. The commonest location of the lesion is at first to third lumbar vertebrae. Lumbosacral adult diastematomyelia is even rarer. Bony malformations and dysplasias are generally recognized on plain x-rays. MRI scanning is often the first choice of screening and diagnosis. MRI generally give adequate analysis of the spinal cord deformities although it has some limitations in giving detailed bone anatomy. Combined myelographic and post-myelographic CT scan is the most effective diagnostic tool in demonstrating the detailed bone, intradural and extradural pathological anatomy of the affected and adjacent spinal canal levels and of the bony spur.

Prenatal ultrasound diagnosis of this anomaly is usually possible in the early to mid third-trimester. An extra posterior echogenic focus between the fetal spinal laminae is seen with splaying of the posterior elements, thus allowing for early surgical intervention and have a favorable prognosis. Prenate ultrasound could also detect whether the diastematomyelia is isolated, with the skin intact or association with any serious neural tube defects. Progressive neurological lesions may result from the "tethering cord syndrome" (fixation of the spinal cord) by the diastematomyelia phenomenon or any of the associated disorders such as myelodysplasia, dysraphia of the spinal cord.