Strictly endoscopic and harmonic scalpel-assisted surgery of nasopharyngeal angiofibromas: eligible for advanced stage tumors

Conclusions. With the assistance of the harmonic scalpel, endoscopic surgery is eligible for advanced nasopharyngeal angiofibromas with skull base or infratemoporal fossa invasion. Objectives. To evaluate the safety and efficacy of strictly endoscopic removal of early and advanced stage nasopharyngeal angiofibromas. Patients and methods. Eight operations for seven consecutive patients presenting with a nasopharyngeal angiofibroma were performed via minimally invasive endoscopic resection by a single surgeon (M. K. C.). All patients were operated with curative intent. Results. Using Radkowski staging, one, two, one, one, and three tumors were stage Ia, IIa, IIb, IIc, and IIIa lesions, respectively. All the tumors were removed successfully by strictly endoscopic surgery. No complications associated with the operation occurred. The average follow-up was 54 months. One recurrence (14.3%) occurred in this series and the salvage surgery was performed by second curative endoscopic procedure.