Management of parotid fistula using hypertonic saline

Parotid fistula is a very rare, unpleasant and painful complication following surgery in the maxillofacial region. Although there is consensus in the literature that acute parotid injury must be explored primarily and all injured structures be repaired accurately, the treatment of the chronic injury is controversial. Numerous methods of treatment, conservative as well as aggressive, have been described with varying success and morbidity. This paper presents a simple but effective and conservative method of treating this complication with the use of hot hypertonic saline.