Risk assessment of hypertension in carotid body surgeries: A NSQIP analysis

Carotid body tumors (CBT) are rare paragangliomas of the carotid body at the carotid bifurcation. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of hypertension on outcomes in carotid body tumor surgery.

A retrospective database review.

Data on carotid body resections performed from 2005 to 2014 were drawn from the American College of Surgeons' National Surgical Quality Improvement database. Two groups were created based on the presence of preoperative hypertension. These groups were analyzed for demographics, comorbidities, and postoperative complications using bivariate and multivariate methods.

Of the 452 patients included in the analysis, 49.3% had hypertension. Those with hypertension were significantly more likely to have additional comorbidities, which were controlled for by multivariate analysis to focus on hypertension. These hypertensive patients also had significantly longer hospital stays. Multivariate analysis showed that patients with hypertension undergoing carotid body resections had increased risk for overall medical complications but did not have increased risk for postoperative surgical complications or specific medical complications CONCLUSION: This statistically robust study revealed that hypertension does not independently increase a patient's risk for specific postoperative surgical complications following a carotid body tumor resection. However, hypertension increases the risk for postoperative medical complications and longer hospital stays. It is notable that almost half of all CBT patients have hypertension, and these hypertensives patients are significantly more likely to carry additional comorbid conditions that may have an adverse effect on outcomes including overall medical complications.

NA Laryngoscope, 130: 2008-2012, 2020.