Glomus tumors of the head and neck: thirteen years’ institutional experience and management

Abstract

Background: Head and neck paragangliomas are slowly growing benign tumors and they originate from specialized neural crest cells.

Aims/objectives: This study aimed to express the safety of paraganglioma surgery regarding complications, treatment, and outcomes of patients with head and neck glomus tumors.

Materials and methods: Medical records of patients who were operated because of head and neck paraganglioma between 2006 and 2018 were reviewed.

Results: The study group consisted of 49 patients (M/F: 6/43). The patients were distributed as follows: 22 glomus caroticum (GC) (44.8%), 8 glomus jugulare (GJ) (16.3%), 10 glomus tympanicum (GT) (20.4%), 4 glomus vagale (GV) (8.1%), 2 GC + GV (4%), 2 bilateral GC (4%) and 1 thyroidal glomus tumor (2%). All GC and GV tumors were resected via cervical approach. Three of GJ tumors were resected through transmastoid approach while five of them were resected through both transmastoid and cervical approach. Nine GT tumors were resected via transmastoid approach. One patient received cyberknife. Thyroid paraganglioma was diagnosed incidentally after total thyroidectomy. Mean follow-up period was 61.92 ± 35.11 months (1–124 m).

Conclusions and significance: The choice of treatment depends on the size, location and biologic activity of tumor as well as the physical condition of the patient. Our results show that glomus tumors can be resected with low mortality and morbidity rates due to developing imaging and microsurgical methods.

背景：头颈部副神经节瘤是生长缓慢的良性肿瘤, 它们源于特定的神经嵴细胞。

目的：本研究旨在表达副神经节瘤手术对头颈部肿瘤患者的安全性, 包括并发症、治疗和预后等方面。

材料和方法：回顾了2006年至2016年期间因头颈部副神经节瘤而手术的患者的医疗记录。

结果：研究群组由49名患者组成（男/ 女：6/43）。患者分布如下：22个caroticum血管球瘤 （GC）（44.8％）, 8个颈静脉球瘤（GJ）（16.3％）, 10个鼓室球瘤（GT）（20.4％）, 4个vagale 血管球瘤（GV）（8.1 ％）, 2 个GC + GV（4％）, 2个双侧GC（4％）和1个甲状腺球蛋白肿瘤（2％）。通过颈部入路切除所有GC和GV肿瘤。通过经乳突入路切除3个GJ肿瘤, 其中5个通过经乳突和颈部入路切除。通过经乳突方法切除9个GT肿瘤。一位患者接受了射波刀手术。甲状腺副神经节细胞瘤的诊断是在全甲状腺切除后偶然发生的。平均随访期为61.92 ± 35.11个月（1-124个月）。

结论和意义：疗法选择取决于肿瘤的大小、位置和生物活性以及患者的身体状况。我们的研究结果表明, 由于成像和微外科手术方法的开发, 切除血管球瘤的死亡率和发病率较低。

Keywords:

• Glomus tumors
• paraganglioma
• head and neck surgery
• complication

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Compliance with ethical standards

Ethical standards: All procedures performed in this study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Ethics Committee Approval has received for this study from the Local Ethics Committee. Informed consent was not required for this type of retrospective study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.