[Extirpation of nasopharyngeal fibromas after selective preoperative angiographic embolization]

The gross amount of bleeding during surgical removal of nasopharyngeal angiofibromas is feared. An excellent method to reduce this amount is the preoperative selective embolization of the feeding vessels of these tumors under angiographic control. The advances in selective angiography of the branches of the external carotid artery by femoral catheterization make it possible to applicate Gelfoam emboli in the very arteries which are to be embolized. There is a case report about two young men who have been pretreated in this manner. The intraoperative bleeding was minimal.