A team approach is critical to successful management and treatment of this condition. The medical team usually will include expertise from the following areas:

• Neonatology
• Paediatric cardiology
• Neurology
• Interventional neuroradiology.

There may be other medical professionals involved depending on the individual case. The patient may have to be transferred to a hospital that can provide these experts and level three intensive care facilities.

In the past, surgical procedures were used to treat the condition. These surgical attempts at closure of the malformation had high mortality and/or severe morbidity rates and are not commonly used today. Today, an alternative treatment called embolisation can provide significant improvements to the malformation.

An embolisation is a procedure in which the feeding blood vessels to the malformation are intentionally closed. Embolisation aims to reduce blood flow to the vein of Galen malformation by obstructing feeding blood vessels. During the procedure a narrow catheter is fed through the arteries that lead to the malformation. The catheter enters the arteries usually through the groin and is fed up through the body and into the head where the malformation is located. Interventional neuroradiologists introduce materials that block the blood flow through the malformation and promote a clot formation that closes it off. The materials used can vary from a kind of fast acting surgical glue to small particles or coils. The procedure is not often fully completed on the first try but by gradually closing off remaining areas of veins in subsequent efforts, Interventional neuroradiologists can usually shut down the malformation. By shutting down the malformation the blood flow through the body can return to a normal rate and will correct the congestive heart failure and the pressure that this created on the other vital organs.