Clinical evaluation of preoperative selective intraarterial embolization for nasopharyngeal fibroangioma

Objective: To study the practical value of preoperative selective intra-arterial embolization in the surgical treatment of nasopharyngeal fibroangioma. Methods: Digital subtraction angiography (DSA) and selective arterial embolization were carried out in 15 cases of nasopharyngeal fibroangioma. The supplying arteries originated from the maxillary and the pharyngeal ascending branches arising from external carotid artery were embolized with gelatin sponge. Results: 15 cases underwent operation after selective embolization of blood supplying arteries and the amount of bleeding in operation was thus reduced greatly in 13 cases, while the blood loss during the surgery of another 2 cases was still considerable because both external carotid artery and internal carotid artery supplied the tumor with only embolization of the external carotid artery. Optimum time for the operation was taken on 2-5 days after the embolization. Conclusions: Preoperative intra-arterial embolization for nasopharyngeal fibroangioma is a valuable method of choice for the clinical treatment. (authors)