Intratemporal carotid artery bypass in resection of a base of skull tumor.

Tumors of the skull base with carotid artery involvement have heretofore required carotid ligation or been deemed inoperable. Two case reports are presented in which en bloc resection of malignant base of skull tumors included removal of a portion of the internal carotid artery. In the first case, the tumor was primarily in the parapharyngeal space and extended to the base of skull. Partial temporal bone resection was carried out to obtain exposure for carotid reconstruction. The second case involved an en bloc temporal bone resection for a recurrent, malignant, mixed tumor that had invaded the carotid canal. Revascularization was achieved in both cases by an autogenous, saphenous vein graft. The patients suffered no postoperative ischemic neurologic sequelae. These are the first known cases of a carotid bypass with distal anastomosis to the intratemporal portion of the internal carotid artery for a malignant base of skull neoplasm. The authors propose this procedure as an alternative to carotid ligation during surgery of tumors of the skull base requiring carotid resection.