title: [Managements of vagal paragangliomas: a report of 11 cases].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To study the clinical characters, diagnosis, surgical outcomes and treatment strategies of vagal paraganglioma (VP).
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective review was performed on 11 patients with VP confirmed by surgery and pathology between January 2000 and July 2010.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Although the combined application of ultrasonography, enhanced computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and digital subtraction angiography (DSA), the preoperative diagnostic accuracy rate was only 27.2%. All patients were managed by surgical resection (one malignant case with postoperative radiotherapy). All patients either had or developed a vagal palsy and additional cranial nerve or sympathetic nerve deficits were sustained in 8 patients after operation. With a median follow-up time of 41 months (range: 4 - 132 months), one case lost and the others survived without local recurrence or distant metastasis.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  VP are rare and liable to misdiagnose. For increasing the preoperative diagnosis rate of VP, the combined application of imaging tests is important and clinicians and radiologists should also enhance the awareness of this disease. Postoperative complications including nerve injury are inevitable and individual treatment is required.
authors.affiliation: Department of Head and Neck Surgery, Cancer Hospital, Peking Union Medical College, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing 100021, China.
authors.forename: Yue
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Xiao-lei
authors.initials: XL
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Zhen-gang
authors.initials: ZG
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Yue-huang
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Wu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010235:Paraganglioma / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000601:surgery; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D020421:Vagus Nerve Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000601:surgery; D055815:Young Adult