Seventeen patients with symptomatic cerebral arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) were diagnosed between 1980 and 1990 in the Leeward Islands of the Netherlands Antilles. Five patients had multiple AVMs. The annual incidence of symptomatic AVMs was 1.1/100,000. The mean age of presentation was 35 years. In 6 patients cerebral AVMs were associated with hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT); 4 of these patients had multiple AVMs. We conclude that HHT is frequently encountered in Netherlands Antillians with symptomatic and multiple cerebral AVMs.