Wong WK, et al. - As a part of this study, researchers inspected the outcomes following treatment of benign parotid pathology when surgery entailed either complete superficial parotidectomy (CSP), partial superficial parotidectomy (PSP) or extracapsular dissection (ECD). A link was unveiled between partial superficial parotidectomy with low rates of morbidity to the facial nerve and surgical wound. Comparable results were yielded to complete superficial parotidectomy. The obtained data suggested offering patient partial superficial parotidectomy wherever appropriate, which appeared to be in line with the current trend of minimising surgical dissection. This, in turn, led to a potential decrease in the risk of short-term and long-term complications.

Methods

• An appraisal was performed of all parotidectomies between June 2006 to June 2016 for histologically-proven benign pathology of the parotid.
• Median follow-up time was 31.6 weeks.

Results

• During this study, 101 parotidectomies were carried out on 97 patients (40 CSP, 56 PSP and 5 ECD).
• Pleomorphic adenoma (48.4%) and Warthin tumors (32.7%) were determined as the most common pathologies.
• The occurence of temporary facial weakness was noted after 7 operations (6.9%). In 4 cases (3.9%), facial weakness was found to be permanent.
• The findings revealed that the rates of sialocele and salivary fistula were 4.9% and 0.9%, respectively.
• One patient (0.9%) developed Frey Syndrome postoperatively.
• The extent of parotid surgery and postoperative facial nerve dysfunction (p=0.674) or wound complications (p=0.433) did not exhibit any marked correlations.
• Univariate analyses did not illustrate any increased risk with developing postoperative complications, for potential contributing factors such as advanced age, smoking status, tumor location or histology.