Is Preoperative Embolization Necessary for Carotid Paraganglioma Resection: Experience of a Tertiary Center

Purpose: This study was designed to investigate whether preoperative embolization is a useful procedure to decrease blood loss and neurovascular complications for carotid body tumor (CBT) surgery or not. Methods: Medical records of our tertiary care center from 2012 to 2019 were scanned for patients who underwent surgery for CBT, retrospectively. Age, gender, complaint and head and neck examination findings at the time of presentation, preoperative complete blood count parameters, imaging records (cervical magnetic resonance imaging and carotid artery angiography), Shamblin classification, tumor size, intraoperative findings, and postoperative complications were noted. Results: A total of 26 patients were operated due to CBT between 2012 and 2019 in our clinic; preoperative arterial embolization was performed to 15 (57.7%) patients, and 11 (42.3%) patients were operated without embolization. Youngest patient was 24 years old, while oldest was 69 years and mean age was 44.35 ± 12.73. (embolization group: ages ranging between 24 and 64 with a mean of 41.5 ± 11.02 years; in nonembolization group: ages ranging between 26 and 69 with a mean of 48.1 ± 14.3). Embolization status was not significantly related to cranial nerve injury, vascular injury, overall complications, and hematocrit decrease. Arterial injury is more likely to occur with increasing Shamblin class ( r = .39; P = .04). Tumor size is not found to be significantly related to cranial nerve injury, vascular injury, overall complications, and hematocrit decrease, but cranial nerve injury and vascular injury were more likely to occur in large tumors ( r = .34; P = .089 and r = .34; P = .087, respectively). Age was significantly and negatively correlated to vascular injury ( r = −.51; P = .05). Vascular injury was significantly correlated with gender (male predominance: r = −.64; P = .000). Conclusion: Although preoperative arterial embolization is considered to attenuate the complication risk, we found that there was no significant difference among the patients with or without embolization.

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The effect of preoperative embolization on surgical outcomes for carotid body tumor resection

SAGE Open Medicine ◽

10.1177/20503121211005229 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 ◽

pp. 205031212110052

Author(s):

Robin Osofsky ◽

Ross Clark ◽

Jaideep Das Gupta ◽

Nathan Boyd ◽

Garth Olson ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Nerve Injury ◽

Carotid Body ◽

Surgical Outcomes ◽

Cranial Nerve ◽

Operative Time ◽

Tumor Resection ◽

Carotid Body Tumor ◽

Preoperative Embolization ◽

Estimated Blood Loss ◽

Cranial Nerve Injury

Objective: Compare the effects of preoperative embolization for carotid body tumor resection on surgical outcomes to carotid body tumor resections without preoperative embolization. Methods: Single-center retrospective review of all consecutive patients who underwent carotid body tumor resection from 2001 to 2019. Surgical outcomes with emphasis on operative time (estimated blood loss and cranial nerve injury) of patients undergoing carotid body tumor resection following preoperative embolization were compared to those undergoing resection alone using unpaired Student’s t-test and Fisher’s exact test. Results: Forty-six patients (15% male, mean age 50 ± 15 years) underwent resection of 49 carotid body tumors. Patients undergoing preoperative embolization ( n = 20 (40%)) had larger mean tumor size (4.0 ± 0.7 vs 3.2 ± 1 cm, p = 0.006), increased Shamblin II/III tumor classification (18 (90%) vs 22 (76%), p < 0.001), operative time (337 ± 195 vs 199 ± 100 min, p = 0.004), and cranial nerve injuries overall (8 (40%) vs 2 (10%), p = 0.01) compared to patients undergoing resection without preoperative embolization ( n = 29 (60%)). In subgroup analysis of Shamblin II/III classification tumors ( n = 40), preoperative embolization ( n = 18) was associated with increased tumor size (4.1 ± 0.6 vs 3.5 ± 0.9 cm, p = 0.01), operative time (351 ± 191 vs 244 ± 105 min, p = 0.02), and cranial nerve injury overall (8 (44%) vs 2 (9%), p = 0.03) compared to resections alone ( n = 19). In further subgroup analysis of large (⩾ 3 cm) tumors ( n = 37), preoperative embolization ( n = 18) was associated with increased operative time (350 ± 191 vs 198 ± 99 min, p = 0.006) and cranial nerve injury overall (8 (44%) vs 2 (11%), p = 0.03) compared to resections alone ( n = 19). There were no significant differences in estimated blood loss, transfusion requirement, or hematoma formation between any of the embolization and non-embolization subgroups. Conclusion: After controlling for tumor Shamblin classification and size, carotid body tumor resections following preoperative embolization were associated with increased operative time and inferior surgical outcomes compared to those tumors undergoing resection alone. Nonetheless, such results remain susceptible to the confounding effects of individual tumor characteristics often used in the decision to perform preoperative embolization, underscoring the need for prospective studies evaluating the utility of preoperative embolization for carotid body tumors.

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