Surgical treatment of carotid body tumors without embolization.

Carotid body (CB) paragangliomas are rare neoplasms, usually benign. This study deals with our 10-year experience in their surgical treatment and the evaluation of its effectiveness, without preoperative embolization.During a 10-year period, from 1995 to 2004, we studied the medical records of 11 patients with CB tumors, 8 males and 3 females, whom only one had bilateral tumors. Their age ranged from 23 to 65 years (mean 35 years) and all had a...