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Volume 1 Supplement 1

1st Scientific Meeting of the Head and Neck Optical Diagnostics Society

Carotid artery by-pass and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma: Geneva's experience. Should we be afraid of the carotid artery?

Head & Neck Oncology volume 1, Article number: P32 (2009) Cite this article

Purpose

To determine the survival, the neurologic morbidity, the post-operative surgical complications, and the predictive factors of patients undergoing a radical neck dissection with carotid by-pass for squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN).

Materials and methods

A retrospective study of 11 patients operated between 1991 and 2007. Besides survival and recurrence, the type of vascular graft, previous radiation, histological carotid invasion, and major complications were evaluated.

Results

The 5-year survival rate was 39%. All deceased patients had a loco-regional recurrence. Salvage surgery and histologic invasion of the carotid artery are negative predictive factors, with an odd-ratio of respectively 6 and 2.5. The rate of neurological morbity is 9% and post-operative complications were found in 18% of patients.

Conclusion

Radical neck dissection with carotid by-pass achieves a good survival rate considering the advanced disease stage of the patients. Autologous venous or arterial graft should be preferred to avoid neurologic complications. Caution should be observed in case of salvage surgery.

Author information

Affiliations

  1. Head and Neck Unit, First Floor East, 250 Euston Road, London, NW1 2PG, UK

    Nicolas Dulguerov

  2. Cardio-vascular unit, Geneva University Hospital, HUG, Switzerland

    Nicolas Murith

  3. Head and Neck Unit, Geneva University Hospital, HUG, Switzerland

    Nicolas Dulguerov & Pavel Dulguerov

Authors
  1. Nicolas Dulguerov
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  2. Nicolas Murith
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  3. Pavel Dulguerov
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nicolas Dulguerov.

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Open Access This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Cite this article

Dulguerov, N., Murith, N. & Dulguerov, P. Carotid artery by-pass and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma: Geneva's experience. Should we be afraid of the carotid artery?. Head Neck Oncol 1, P32 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1186/1758-3284-1-S1-P32

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Keywords

  • Squamous Cell Carcinoma
  • Carotid Artery
  • Predictive Factor
  • Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma
  • Vascular Graft

Head & Neck Oncology

ISSN: 1758-3284