Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Apr;44(4):1030-1042.
doi: 10.1002/hed.26967. Epub 2021 Dec 23.

Resection of the internal carotid artery in selected patients affected by cancer of the skull base

Marco Ferrari  1   2   3 , Elisabetta Zanoletti  1 , Stefano Taboni  1   2   4 , Diego Cazzador  1 , Giulia Tealdo  1 , Alberto Schreiber  5 , Davide Mattavelli  5 , Vittorio Rampinelli  3   5 , Francesco Doglietto  6 , Marco Maria Fontanella  6 , Barbara Buffoli  7 , Alperen Vural  8 , Vincenzo Verzeletti  1 , Andrea Luigi Camillo Carobbio  1 , Dikran Mardighian  9 , Francesco Causin  10 , Ester Orlandi  11 , Marco Cenzato  12 , Rita Rezzani  7 , Piero Nicolai  1
Affiliations

Resection of the internal carotid artery in selected patients affected by cancer of the skull base

Marco Ferrari et al. Head Neck. 2022 Apr.

Abstract

Invasion of the internal carotid artery (ICA) has been historically considered a criterion of non-resectability of skull base cancer (SBC). Patients affected by SBC who underwent surgery including resection of ICA at two tertiary institutions were included. Demographics, oncologic, and surgical information, complications, and survival outcomes were retrospectively reviewed. Survival outcomes were calculated. Ten patients were included. Three surgical approaches (transnasal endoscopic, transorbital, and transpetrosal) were employed to resect the invaded/abutted tract(s) of the ICA. All patients underwent ICA temporary balloon occlusion test. In two patients, an extracranial-to-intracranial arterial bypass was harvested. Major neuromorbidity was observed in two patients. Perioperative mortality of the series was 10.0%. Mean overall survival was 27.2 months, with 2-year overall and progression-free survival rate of 88.9%. ICA resection is feasible as part of the ablation performed for very advanced SBCs. Survival outcomes are acceptable in adequately selected patients.

Keywords: cancer; head and neck; internal carotid artery; skull base; vascular surgical procedure.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

REFERENCES

    1. Yousem DM, Gad K, Tufano RP. Resectability issues with head and neck cancer. Am J Neuroradiol. 2006;27(10):2024-2035.
    1. Yousem DM, Hatabu H, Hurst RW, et al. Carotid artery invasion by head and neck masses: prediction with MR imaging. Radiology. 1995;195(3):715-720. doi:10.1148/radiology.195.3.7754000
    1. Greene FL, Page DL, Fleming ID, et al. AJCC Cancer Staging Manual. 6th ed. Springer; 2002. doi:10.1007/978-1-4757-3656-4
    1. Wright JG, Nicholson R, Schuller DE, et al. Resection of the internal carotid artery and replacement with greater saphenous vein: a safe procedure for en bloc cancer resections with carotid involvement. J Vasc Surg. 1996;23(5):775-782. doi:10.1016/S0741-5214(96)70239-2
    1. Katsuno S, Takemae T, Ishiyama T, Usami SI. Is carotid reconstruction for advanced cancer in the neck a safe procedure? Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2001;124(2):222-224. doi:10.1067/mhn.2001.112482

LinkOut - more resources