FACTORS INFLUENCING SAFETY OF CAROTID LIGATION

The experience of the Head and Neck Service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center from 1954 through 1966 is reviewed. One hundred and fifty-one patients were subjected to ligation of the common and/or internal carotid arteries. Four patients required bilateral ligation. Sixty-four elective and ninety-one nonelective ligations (eighty-seven patients) were performed. Elective ligation proved to be twice as safe as nonelective ligation. Those patients exhibiting brain damage and death were most commonly those in whom shock developed. Oozing should be considered a highly significant sign which may frequently herald carotid blowout. By judicious election, the patient may be spared the dangerous as well as frightening experience of spontaneous carotid hemorrhage. © 1969.