Anaesthetic challenges in carotid body tumour resection: a case report and review of literature

Carotid body tumour (CBT) is an extremely rare, non-chromaffin paraganglioma arising from chemoreceptor cells at the carotid bifurcation. Reported incidence is 1-2 per 100,000. Surgical excision of the tumour, the definitive treatment, poses several anaesthetic challenges and a high incidence of perioperative morbidity and mortality (20-40%). Very few cases have been reported so far. We report the anaesthetic management of a case of CBT excision with a review of recent literature on the same