Sialendoscopy-Assisted Treatment for Chronic Obstructive Parotitis—Our Treatment Strategy with 31 Patients

Chronic obstructive parotitis (COP) is the most common non-neoplastic salivary disorder. The aim of this study was to describe the authors' experience using sialendoscopy for diagnosing and treating COP.

Thirty-one patients with COP who were treated with sialendoscopy from January 2013 through June 2014 at the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, School of Stomatology, China Medical University (Shenyang, China) were retrospectively reviewed. The cohort underwent ultrasonography and salivary gland scintigraphy examinations before sialendoscopy. Patients without stones underwent sialography before surgery. All patients were asked to report visual analog scale (VAS) scores before and 6 months after surgery to evaluate their condition. A paired t test was conducted and differences with a P value less than .05 were considered statistically significant.

Thirty patients (44 parotid glands) successfully underwent interventional sialendoscopy under local anesthesia; 1 patient (1 parotid gland) received general anesthesia. The mean preoperative VAS score was 6, and the mean VAS score 6 months after sialendoscopy was 4.9. The postoperative VAS score was significantly lower than the preoperative VAS score (P < .05).

Interventional sialendoscopy plays an important role in the treatment of COP.