Foreign body induced sialolithiasis treated by sialoendoscopic intervention

The study aims to identify the impact of sialolith formation by reviewing the foreign body induced sialolithiasis treated by sialoendoscopic intervention.

The study group included 13 patients whose sialolithiasis was induced by foreign body. After the routine radiographic examination, sialoendoscopic procedures were performed. Then, the treatment protocol was designed.

The occupations of the 13 patients included 5 fishermen, 3 office workers, 2 workers, 1 teacher, 1 farmer, and 1 retired police officer. All patients had a unique diet habit-seafood. Eleven patients had a remembered incident of implanted fish bone and the following symptoms, with either obstructions or infections. Only 2 of the 13 had no memory of such an injury. All the stones were in the ducts of submandibular glands. In 10 procedures, there was 1 solitary stone, whereas 2 stones were encountered in 3 procedures. After being removed, 16 stones were crushed to expose the fish bone nidus of the stone. There was relief of symptoms after the procedures.

This study supported the possibility that some sialoliths resulted from a retrograde migration within the salivary ducts. In our study, the occupations (fisherman), the diet habit (seafood), and the injury history (a remembered incident of implanted fish bone and the following symptoms) were obviously related to the stone formation that was induced by the fish bone.