Embolization in the head and neck region.

With our results we want to demonstrate the usefulness of the presurgical embolization of tumours in areas where the operation of the highly vascularized tumours is very difficult or even impossible. In certain cases of angiomatous lesions, better results can be achieved by means of embolization than by surgery. For a safe and successful intravascular embolization an optimal technique with DSA, an experienced team and a cooperative patient are absolute prerequisites for interventional procedures in head and neck regions. CT in axial and coronal scans are important to outline the lesion, especially the bone destruction in the skull base. In juvenile nasopharyngeal angiofibroma we found the best results of devascularizing the tumour, if we first embolized the maxillary artery. According to Davis we performed a facial artery injection at the end of the embolization, in order to opacify the collateral of the maxillary artery, and thus control the completeness of maxillary artery embolization.