Management Of Carotid Body Tumor: Thirteen Years Of Experience

BACKGROUND: Carotid body tumors (CBT) are the most prevalent type of parasympathetic paragangliomas. These paragangliomas occur 1-2 cases per 100000. They are hard to diagnose because of slow growth and subtle symptoms in early stages. Primary' treatment is surgical resection but due to anatomical position, it can accompany catastrophic complications such as nerve palsy or massive hemorrhage. What's more, etiological factors of tumor are mostly unknown.METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed records of patients who had undergone CBT resection from 2000 to 2012. Follow-up was conducted via telephone calls. Analysis was performed by SPSS ver.20.RESULTS: Out of the total of 62 patients 82.3% were female and 17.7% male. Tumors ranged from 10 to 85 mm in size. The hemoglobin level was significantly different between male and female group. The hospital stay was 1 to 30 days being 9.95 +/- 5.99 days on average. Malignancy was found in 3 patients (4.8%). The most frequent presenting symptom was lateral neck mass in 72.6% of cases. 16 cases (25.8%) experienced postsurgery complications; recurrence was the most prevalent complication (6.5%). The most common long-term complication in the follow-up was lingual and facial nerve paralysis (11.21%) resolving within one year. The most common underlying condition was hypertension in 14 cases (22.6%) and also bilateral tumor was found in 4 cases (6.5%).CONCLUSIONS: The most notable finding in our study was the association of birthplace altitude with incidence of CBTs. Several investigations has been conducted on the effect of altitude on this tumors. The authors assume that altitude may also has effect on the embryonic periods and possibly genetic factors.