Carotid Body Tumors: Clinical Features, Diagnosis, and Surgical Management

Describe the clinical features and treatment of carotid body tumors.

Answer. It is also called chemodectoma or potato tumor.

Definition: It is a non-chromaffin paraganglioma.

It most commonly arises near the bifurcation of the common carotid artery.

It is a benign tumor.

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Carotid Body Tumor Clinical Features

It is usually unilateral.
More common in middle age.
Swelling (75%) in the carotid region of the neck which is smooth, firm, pulsatil,e and moves only side to side but not in vertical direction.
It can often compress over the esophagus and larynx.
Headache, neck pain, dysphagia, and syncope are other presentations.

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It can present with unilateral vocal cord palsy; which can cause Horner’s syndrome.
Features of transient ischemic attacks due to compression over the carotids, “carotid body syncope. “
Thrill may be felt and bruit may be heard.
It is located at the level of hyoid bone deep to the anterior edge of the sternomastoid muscle in an anterior triangle, vertically placed, round, firm ‘potato-like swelling.
Often tumors may extend into the cranial cavity along with the internal carotid artery as a dumbbell tumor.

Carotid Body Tumors Clinical Features, Diagnosis, And Surgical Management

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Carotid Body Tumor Treatment

If it is small, it can be excised easily as the tumor is situated in the adventitia.
When it is large, as commonly observed, complete excision has to be done followed by placing a vascular graft.
During resection, a temporary shunt is placed between the common carotid below and the internal carotid above to safeguard cerebral perfusion;the external carotid artery is ligated. The venous or prosthetic graft is placed between the common carotid and internal carotid arteries.

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