Juvenile Angiofibroma Embolization: Nine Years of Experience in Damascus University

Juvenile angiofibroma is a benign, highly vascular, fibromatous or angiofibromatous hamartoma that is locally invasive, arises from the nasopharynx, and has a marked tendency to recur. JNAs constitute 0.5% of head and neck tumors and are found almost exclusively in adolescent males."n152 male cases of juvenile angiofibroma (JNA) be-tween 13-24 y/o with a mean age of 15 years were embolized during 2001-2009 in Al Assad University Hospital, Damascus, Syria."nAll cases were referred by the ENT department. The procedure was performed in most cases by Vert diagnostic catheter (5F, 120). Until 2003, we used polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and coils for embolization and then only PVA was used, except in five cases tin which we used Tris- acrylgelatin microspheres. The PVA particles tend to group within the vessel and occlude the proximal lumen and cause intraluminal thrombosis with an inflammatory reaction and thrombus organises later."nNo major complications were reported and just a few cases had headache and tooth pain."nTwelve cases were referred again due to relapsing tumor: four cases due to late surgery (re-embolization was performed) and eight cases due to co-existing feeding vessels from ECA and ICA through its meningeal territories (no embolization was carried out). By experience, it was found that major difficulties in embolization of JNA are in cases that have feeding vessels from meningeal territories of ICA which are very narrow and it is not easily possible to embolize them.