Tumor Embolization

Certain tumors of the brain and its coverings can bleed heavily during surgery. This can make the neurosurgeon's task very difficult and sometimes impossible. This difficulty can be eased by embolization (blocking) of the blood vessels feeding these tumors before surgery begins.

A cerebral tumor embolization is a procedure in which a catheter is placed into the patient's groin and carefully navigated into the blood vessels supplying the tumor under X-ray guidance. An angiogram is obtained by injecting X-ray dye into the blood vessel to examine the blood supply of the tumor and verify that it is safe to eliminate that vessel. Material is then injected through the catheter to block the blood vessel under X-ray guidance. Occasionally, malignant tumors require embolization with stronger agents, such as alcohol or chemotherapy drugs.

Tumor embolization is a procedure that can be performed prior to a planned surgical resection. Embolization shuts down the blood supply to a tumor reducing blood loss during surgical resection. A secondary benefit from embolization can be that tumor margins are more easily identified and a tumor can be removed more completely and with less effort. Tumors of the spine, head, and neck that can be embolized have relatively large blood vessels supplying the tumor. Examples of typical tumors with prominent blood supply include: hemangioblastoma, meningioma, juvenile nasal angiofibroma, aneurysmal bone cyst, paraganglioma’s