[Surgical management of salivary gland tumours]

Salivary gland tumours account for 3% of head and neck tumours. The aim of this study is to analyze our series of tumours of the salivary glands requiring surgical treatment at our centre from 2004 to 2007.

This study is a retrospective review of 49 patients diagnosed as having tumours of the major and minor salivary glands or ectopic salivary tumours, and surgically treated at our hospital between 2004 and 2007. We reviewed their clinical characteristics, imaging findings, fine-needle cytology results, surgical charts (sub-maxillectomies, parotidectomies, palatal tumour excisions and cervicotomies), final pathology findings, and course with at least one year follow-up.

Forty-nine salivary tumours were treated, including 43 parotid tumours (87%), 3 sub-mandibular tumours (6%), 1 palatal tumour (2%) and 2 ectopic tumours (4%). Sixteen percent of the tumours were malignant. Fine-needle cytology sensitivity was 40%, whereas specificity was 100%. Out of 43 parotidectomies, 40 (93%) were primary parotidectomies, and 3 were revision parotidectomies. Most parotidectomies (81%) were superficial or partial and 8 (19%) were total. Parotidectomy complications are similar to those described previously in the literature: permanent facial palsy in superficial or partial parotidectomy (5%), wound dehiscence or necrosis (13%), post-operative bleeding (4%), fever or wound infection (7%), sialoceles (44%) and Frey's syndrome (2%).

Parotid tumours are the most common salivary gland tumours. Most of them are benign, but Warthin's tumour is more frequent than usual in our series. Early and late complications from parotidectomy are uncommon, although sialocele is a common transitory complication in our series.