Juvenile angiofibroma: major and minor complications of preoperative embolization

Juvenile angiofibromas (JA) are highly vascular, benign tumours for which surgery is the treatment of choice. In most services, embolisation is performed prior to resection. Nevertheless, there are few data on the complications of preoperative embolisation for JA.

To describe major and minor complications of preoperative embolisation in a 32-year experience of patients undergoing surgical resection of JA at a tertiary hospital.

Retrospective chart review study of 170 patients who underwent surgical resection of JA at a tertiary hospital between September 1976 and July 2008.

All patients were male. Age ranged from 9 to 26 years. Ninety-one patients had no complications after embolisation. Overall, 105 complication events occurred of which four major and 101 minor.

In our series, preoperative embolisation for JA produced no irreversible complications and no aesthetic or functional sequelae. The vast majority of complications were transient and amenable to clinical management.