Hi, I have a Paraganglioma on the carotid artery (left side). Specifically it is 3cm and is at the bifurcation of the artery. I have visited and spoken to surgeons at Swedish (Seattle), Fred Hutch (Seattle) and Mayo (Arizona). Of those three doctors 1 wanted to embolize the day before (Swedish) and the other 2 told me that they would not embolize. I spent some time researching this myself and found two medical papers detailing studies on whether or not embolization was advantageous. In both studies the conclusion was that the results of the removal of the tumor were not affected by having or not having an embolization.
I felt that the surgeon at Swedish was a little too casual in his attitude towards my surgery and seemed to treat it as 'routine' telling me he always embolizes the day before. The surgeon at Fred Hutch was very efficient and professional but a little too clinical for me, although her treatment plan was the same as the final doctor I met at Mayo - I really liked him. Very experienced and very willing to take the time to explain everything. When I asked him about embolization his response was 'there is a 3 percent risk of stroke with embolization and I don't consider that it is a risk worth taking'.
So, this is my experience to date and I hope you might find it helpful.
FYI I will be having this removed by the surgeon at Mayo as soon as I get my date, hopefully 4 - 5weeks time.