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Surgical treatment of carotid body tumours
E Bastounis1, C Maltezos, E Pikoulis
1First Department of Surgery, University of Athens Medical School, Laikon General Hospital, Greece.
Objective:
To evaluate our results of the treatment of patients with carotid body tumours.
Design:
Retrospective study.
Setting:
University hospital, Greece.
Subjects:
17 patients operated on for a carotid body tumour during the past 20 years.
Main Outcome Measures:
Hospital mortality and morbidity, long-term outcome.
Results:
3 patients had temporary cranial nerve lesions postoperatively, all of which resolved within three months. One patient developed a severe stroke and died seven days postoperatively. During follow-up that ranged from 7 months to 20 years, two patients died of unrelated causes. 5 patients were lost to follow up, and the remaining 10 were doing well with no signs of recurrence at the time of writing.
Conclusion:
Excision of a carotid body tumour is recommended at the time of initial diagnosis in good-risk patients to avoid the difficulty of subsequent excision of an enlarging and highly vascular tumour with possible encasement of the carotid artery.