A case of carotid body tumor (paraganglioma) is reported. The patient was a 68-year-old woman with a submandibular mass on the right side.
Magnetic resonance imaging revealed a mass located at the right carotid bifurcation. The mass showed low signal intensity on T1-weighted images that were enhanced by gadolinium-DTPA and high signal intensity on T2-weighted images.
The histologic diagnosis of a biopsy specimen was benign carotid body tumor. Carotid angiography showed a highly vascularized tumor with feeding vessels arising from the external carotid artery. The tumor was dissected in the capsular adventitial plane and removed en bloc, preserving the internal carotid artery. Five months postoperatively, the patient was doing well, with no evidence of recurrence.
One hundred forty-two cases of carotid body tumor were reviewed. Of the total, 113 tumors were benign and 29 were malignant. Among 100 patients for whom adequate information was available, tumor extirpation alone was performed in 87 and tumor extirpation with resection of the carotid artery in 36.Most of the tumors smaller than 4cm in diameter were resected.