Sialendoscopy under conscious sedation versus general anesthesia. A comparative study

Sialendoscopy is a minimally invasive emerging approach, the general surgical technique has been published but many essential questions still need to be addressed with the aim of improving outcomes. For instance, should we systematically perform sialendoscopy under conscious sedation (CS) or general anesthesia (GA)? What are the limitations of CS? The objective of this study is to compare these two modalities.

A retrospective study of 70 patients who had undergone a sialendoscopy between 2014 and 2016 (34 under GA and 36 under CS). Comparisons were made between these two groups in term of operative time, stone size and location, tolerability, operative success and post-operative pain.

The patients' mean age was 45.33 years. The operative success rate among the GA group was 79.4% vs. 88.9% in the CS group (P = 0.276), while complications for both groups were comparable. All patients considered the intervention under CS to be tolerable.

Sialendoscopy under CS or GA demonstrated the ability to access large and distal stones among the different salivary glands with an excellent tolerability. Anesthesia type should be based on surgeon and patient preference Nevertheless, patient reassurance and surgeon experience are important to producing a good result with CS.