Surgical complications of carotid body tumors surgery: a review

Carotid body tumor (CBT) is a rare neoplasm, although it represents about 65% of head and neck paragangliomas. Surgical excision is considered the appropriate therapy for CBTs. The aim of this study was to evaluate surgical outcomes on a large scale. We reviewed 19 studies between 2004 to 2014 with a total of 625 procedures. We observed a higher number of cases in women (62%). Only 3 (0,48%) deaths were reported as surgical complication. Total cranial nerve injuries were 302 (48,32%) of which 194 (31,04%) were transient and 108 (17,28%) were permanent. We found a total of 174 (27,84%) arterial injuries, most of which are external carotid artery (ECA) injuries. Cerebrovascular accident due to surgery were 15 (2,4%). We concluded that surgical resection remains the treatment of choice for these disease despite the related morbidity.