Vertebral Artery Mobilization and Cervical Tumor Resection

Abstract

To emphasize the importance of vertebral artery (VA) mobilization by reviewing the anatomy and variations of the VA while performing total resection of VA-associated tumors that develop from different tissues. VA mobilization and mass resection were performed after the evaluation and preoperative imaging of 22 patients with VA-related tumors. Anterior, posterior, or both approaches were conducted on the patients and stabilization was also applied to the patients in need. Radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy were planned for patients with malignant tumors as shown by histopathology. Overall, 17 patients with benign and 5 patients with malignant tumors underwent tumor resection with VA mobilizing. There were 13 male and 9 female patients with a mean age of 29.3 years. The average follow-up duration was 53 months. All the patients received gross total tumor resection and had a good postoperative neurological recovery. No complications were observed; local recurrence was observed only in 2 patients. VA mobilization reduces the need for instrumentation in VA-related cases, especially nerve tumors, and increases the possibility of the surgical resection of vertebral tumors.