Endovascular Management of Paragangliomas

Abstract

Background: Paragangliomas of head and neck are highly vascular tumors, which coupled their surgical excision with high morbidity. Pre-operative transarterial super selective embolization markedly improved safety of their surgical excision. Patients and Methods: This is a retrospective nonrandomized clinical and angiographic study of all ten patients with paragangliomas who undergone pre-operative embolization in Department of Neurosurgery-Tanta University between 2010 and 2016. Results: The ten patients had 11 paragangliomas. 80% of patients were females. The average age of patients was 47 years. All patients had pain and pulsatile tinnitus at diagnosis. Paragangliomas subtypes comprised 8 temporal, 2 carotid body and one vagale tumors. The average reduction of paraganglioma vascularity after embolization was 80%. Conclusions: Pre-operative transarterial embolization of head and neck paragangliomas is a very safe and effective adjuvant to surgical excision.