All tumours were grouped according

to Shamblin’s classification in order to assess the difficulty and morbidity of surgical resection: group I included all small tumours non yet adhering to the carotids; group II included larger tumours partially encasing the vessels and adhering the nerves whose dissection may cause nerve damage; group III included largest tumours completely encasing carotid arteries with a high danger for nerves and need for carotid resection and reconstruction. Intraoperative radio-localization was carried out on all lesions by a hand-held gamma-detecting probe connected to a special buy GDC-0994 counting unit (Octreoscan-Navigator-USSC) within 24 hours radiopharmaceutical administration by the same nuclear MI-503 medicine physician than preoperative scanning. Radioactivity measurements were undertaken on the tumour in vivo compared with the background on the tumour bed to detect remnants and on lymph

nodes to reveal invasion. The carotid arteries were exposed through a standard cervicotomy, hypoglossal and vagus nerves were always identified and the common, internal and external carotid arteries were dissected. Resection was always attempted from the inferior margin of the tumour at the carotid bifurcation and extended onto the internal and external carotid arteries. Preoperative CCU and radiosotopic scans suggested the need of a treatment involving vascular and maxillofacial teams in 4 patients and intraoperative findings confirmed the need of that multidisciplinary approach. None of the VRT752271 5 Shamblin’s class I tumours required an internal carotid

artery resection although in 1 case external carotid artery was interrupted; they all were fairly easily removed without neurological complications. Ablation of the 5 CBTs in Shamblin’s class II required: 2 external carotid artery resection, 1 carotid bifurcation PTFE patch angioplasty and 2 internal carotid artery replacement with a ASV graft. At surgery all tumours of Shamblin’s Protirelin class III extended very high above the angle of the mandible and required digastric and pre-stilomastoid muscle resection plus vertical osteotomy of the mandibular ramus to get a wider space near the skull base. A forewarned maxillo-facial surgical team always resected and later reconstructed the mandibular bone in order to treat those CBTs. A CBTs ablation with carotid arteries resection and internal carotid artery replacement (2 PTFE-TW and 2 ASV grafts) was carried out in all cases combined to external carotid artery resection in 2. The patient suffering from vagus nerve neurinoma had the nerve resection; in another case vagus, hypoglossal and superior laryngeal nerves interruption was mandatory to allow complete removal of adhering tumours. The pathologic examination of the tumour and sampling of jugular lymph nodes were carried out in all cases.