title: Delayed carotid artery rupture in advanced cervical cancer--a dilemma in emergency management.
abstract: Carotid artery rupture in the setting of advanced carcinoma of the head and neck constitutes a surgical emergency. This report details three such patients, two of whom presented with profuse bleeding, the other with imminent rupture. Notably, our first patient ruptured 27 years after having had radiotherapy for carcinoma of the larynx. This patient had had no previous surgery and at operation no recurrent tumor was evident. In the other two patients, previous surgery had demonstrated tumor invasion of the carotid artery. The choice of therapy in this calamitous condition is controversial, the question being whether to resect and reconstruct or ligate the ruptured artery. Our three patients underwent ligation with no recurrence of bleeding and no neurological sequelae for a follow-up period of 5-36 months. Of paramount importance is the hemodynamic stabilization of the patient prior to being submitted to surgery. Our results favor ligation rather than resection and reconstruction as the procedure of choice in this difficult predicament.
authors.affiliation: Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Israel. limawitz@nonstop.net.il
authors.forename: Misha
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Witz
authors.forename: Ze'ev
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Korzets
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Shnaker
authors.forename: Jonathan M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Lehmann
authors.forename: Dov
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ophir
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D002340:Carotid Artery Diseases / Q000209:etiology / Q000601:surgery*; D017577:Cutaneous Fistula / Q000209:etiology; D017809:Fatal Outcome; D005402:Fistula / Q000209:etiology; D006258:Head and Neck Neoplasms / Q000150:complications / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010608:Pharyngeal Diseases / Q000209:etiology; D011183:Postoperative Complications; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D011878:Radiotherapy / Q000009:adverse effects; D012422:Rupture, Spontaneous / Q000209:etiology / Q000601:surgery