Clinical Value of Pre-operative Polyvinyl Alcohol Embolization in Juvenile Nasopharyngeal Angiofibroma

Abstract

Role of the pre-operative embolization in the treatment of juvenile nasopharyngeal angiofibroma, is controversial. For the purpose of evaluating clinical effectiveness of embolization, ten patients who came to our clinic with histopathological diagnosis of juvenile nasopharyngeal angiofibroma and who are and not administered embolization between 1994 and 2000, have been retrospectively analyzed. In five of the cases, selective embolization method has been administered with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA). In cases where only surgical treatment is administered, it is found that average intra-operative bleeding amount is 2530 cc and transfusion unit administered is 4.4 units. In the cases where pre-operative embolization is administered, intra-operative bleeding amount is 1590 cc and number of transfusion units is 2. Results indicated that embolization with pre-operative polyvinyl alcohol is a reliable and effective method in decreasing the amount of intra-operative bleeding, transfusion need and duration of the surgical operation.

Keywords

• juvenile nasopharyngeal angiofibroma
• embolization
• polyvinyl alcohol.