Paragangliomas of head and neck - A surgical challenge

Paragangliomas of the head and neck region are rare and predominantly asymptomatic tumors. These neoplasms arise from widely distributed paraganglionic cells, which originate from both mesodermal elements of third branchial arch and the neural crest residues. Despite the rare occurrence of paragangliomas, problems encountered in their diagnosis, unclear malignancy and treatment ensure that they still remain in the focus of head and neck surgeons. This is a retrospective study of the medical records of patients treated in the ENT Department of the 5th Military Hospital in Krakow during the period 2010-2014. All the preoperative, intraoperative and postoperative data were carefully analyzed for each patient. Thirteen patients (16 tumors) were treated during the study period. All the patients with a pre-operative suspicion of paraganglioma underwent computed tomography angiography. The whole cohort of patients was treated surgically. Paraganglioma should be always considered in the differential diagnosis for painless neck masses. These tumors require thorough radiological pre-operative evaluation and skilled operative technique. Surgical treatment occurs to provide good cure rates with minimal recurrence and morbidity rates.