Perioperative approach in the surgical management of carotid body tumors

摘要

To the Editor: In their recent article, Zhang et al. described their experience with surgical treatment of carotid body tumors (CBTs) using preoperative embolization. We appreciate their interesting work and we are especially pleased by the very low perioperative neurologic morbidity (only 3 cases of lesions of the hypoglossal nerve). We agree with the selective use of preoperative embolization (only Shamblin IE or large paragangliomas), which may also simplify the operative procedure and reduce blood loss, although it will not decrease rates of cranial nerve injury.