Retrospective, multicenter study of surgical treatment for carotid body tumors with or without preoperative embolization

Tonglei Han; Jiaxi Pu; Hanfei Tang; Shaofei Yang; Dandan Dong; Minhao Lu; Xiaolong Wei; Guanghua Yang; Bin Zhao; Daqiao Guo; Xiao Tang; Zhiqing Zhao

doi:10.3389/fonc.2023.1123430

Retrospective, multicenter study of surgical treatment for carotid body tumors with or without preoperative embolization

Front Oncol. 2023 Mar 2:13:1123430. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2023.1123430. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Vascular Surgery, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
² Department of General Surgery, Seventh People's Hospital of Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China.
³ Department of Vascular Surgery, Changhai Hospital, Naval Military Medical University, Shanghai, China.

Abstract

Background: Carotid body tumor (CBT) is the most common head and neck paraganglioma. Whether preoperative embolization benefits CBT patients who will receive surgical resection is still controversial.

Methods: In this multi-center retrospective study, we collected data from patients with CBT who received surgical treatment without (group A) or with preoperative embolization (group B) from 2011 to 2019. The primary outcome was the rate of death or stroke after 3 years of follow-up. The secondary outcomes of the study were length of operation (LOO), intraoperative blood loss (IBL), length of stay (LOS), rate of recurrence, and rate of cranial nerve (CN) injuries. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the demographics, clinical characteristics, complications, and follow-up results of the patients.

Results: Between January 2011 and October 2019, 261 consecutive patients (107 male and 154 female) entered analysis. After 3 years of follow-up, no patient died in both groups. Only three patients with stroke were detected: 2/226 (0.9%) in group A vs. 1/35 (2.9%) in group B (p = .308). The LOO in group A was 132.6 ± 64.6 min compared with 152.9 ± 40.4 min in group B (p = .072). IBL in group A was 375.4 ± 497.8 ml compared with 448.0 ± 270.8 ml in group B (p = .400). LOS in group A was 8.3 ± 2.0 days compared with 7.4 ± 1.7 days in group B (p = .016). Seventy-two CN injuries were detected: 65/226 (28.8%) in group A vs. 7/35 (20.0%) in group B (p = .281). There were 65 temporary CN injuries (59 in group A vs. 6 in group B) (p = .254) and seven permanent CN injuries (6 in group A vs. 1 in group B) (p = .945). Three most frequently injured cranial nerves were the pharyngeal branch and superior laryngeal nerve (12.3%), recurrent laryngeal nerve (7.7%) and vagus nerve (7.3%).

Conclusion: There was insufficient evidence to support the efficacy of preoperative embolization. CBT resection alone had a similar rate of stoke, recurrence, and CN injuries when compared with CBT resection with preoperative arterial embolization. Meanwhile, CBT resection alone did not increase LOO and IBL.

Keywords: carotid body tumor; cranial nerve injuries; preoperative embolization; stroke; surgical resection.

Grants and funding

This research was financially founded by the Health Science and Technology Project of Shanghai Pudong New Area Health Commission (PW2020A−33), the Pudong New Area Science and Technology Development Fund (PKJ2020-Y18), the budget project of Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (2021LK057), the talent training program (the Big Dipper) of Shanghai Pudong New Area key specialty project (PWZzk2022-12), and Seventh People’s Hospital of Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (BDX2022-04).