Angiography Before Posterior Mediastinal Tumor Resection: Selection Criteria and Patient Outcomes

Madariaga and colleagues retrospectively evaluated operative characteristics and outcomes in 86 patients who underwent resection of a posterior mediastinal tumor, with or without preoperative angiography. The nine patients who were selected for angiography had larger tumors that more often involved the neuroforamen than patients who were not selected. Blood loss, complication rate, and deaths related to tumor resection were comparable between patients who did and did not undergo angiography, and the authors did not find angiography itself to be associated with increased complications. They suggest that for properly selected patients, the ability to limit resection blood loss with embolization and to define spinal and tumor blood supply could outweigh the risk of angiography.