Surgery of vagal paragangliomas: six patients and review of literature.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Vagal paragangliomas (VPs) represent a rare pathology in which surgery is usually recommended, but where experience is crucial to reduce the number of post-operative complications. In this study, we present our experience and a review of the literature.

METHODS

Between 1991 and 2006 we have treated 42 patients with 50 paragangliomas of the head and neck (26 carotid, 18 jugular/tympanic and 6 vagal). Examination of the literature (Medline and non-indexed Spanish source) from the last 30 years has revealed 23 series that each reported more than three cases; reaching a total of 332 VPs.

RESULTS

VPs are infrequent among paragangliomas of the head and neck (6/50) presenting clinical peculiarities such as multiple tumours, and malignant evolution. Within this current series, surgery was possible in all cases. Post-operative dysfunction in cranial nerves was frequent (the cranial X nerve was systematically sacrificed). There were no bronco-aspirations or mortalities. The literature review reveals similar results.

CONCLUSION

To obtain the best results, it is important that the candidates for surgery be selected by experts within multidisciplinary groups.