A brief history of salivary gland surgery

Salivary gland neoplasms are a relatively uncommon disease, with nearly one case per 100.000 adults estimated per year and an overall incidence of 1% of all neoplasms. The benign neoplasms are majority and the prognosis depends on the histologic type, grade, localization, soft tissue infiltration, regional and distant metastasis. The main treatment is surgery with caution to facial nerve in the major salivary glands, followed by radiotherapy and chemotherapy in selected cases. The objective of this review is to provide the lector an historic approach about salivary gland diseases treatment, with special attention to the parotid neoplasms and its peculiarities associated to those who studied these glands in their history course.