Treatment of sialocele: an experimental study in dogs

A patient had a delayed complication of parotid trauma, namely a sialocele. He was successfully treated by repeated needle aspiration of the fluid. An experiment using 30 dogs was then done. On each dog, one parotid gland was used as a control, the other parotid was treated by one of three methods that the author felt would be most satisfactory. Needle aspiration was found to be the simplest and the most effective manner of treatment, because the proximal duct quickly becomes obstructed with the cessation of salivary flow, disappearance of the sialocele, and later parotid atrophy. One patient and 30 dogs are surely not conclusive proof of what would be proper treatment, but the author hopes that this paper will stimulate otolaryngologists to try this method if confronted with a similar problem.