Preoperative Measurement of Submandibular Gland Stone Size

Jin, Hyo Seung; Choi, Sung Yong; Ko, Jae Jin; Son, Ho Jin; Lee, Hyo Won; Lee, Sang Youl; Kim, Jeong Kyu

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
The choice of optimal treatment methods among various gland preserving procedures including transoral surgery, sialendoscopy and extracorporeal lithotripsy for submandibular stones is mainly determined by the size of the stone. We tried to assess the accuracy of ultrasonography (USG) and computerized tomography (CT) for the preoperative estimation of submandibular gland stone size.
SUBJECTS AND METHOD
We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 251 patients who were treated for submandibular stones from January 2008 to December 2014. Eighty patients who checked both preoperative USG and CT were included. Preoperative USG and CT measurements of the submandibular stones were compared to postoperative measurements of removed stones. Effects of stone location and presence of acute infection on preoperative measurements were also assessed.
RESULTS
The mean submandibular gland stone size was 6.60+/-3.8 mm by USG, 7.23+/-4.0 mm by neck CT and 7.89+/-4.7 mm by the postoperative measurement. USG and CT showed good correlation with the postoperative measurement (correlation coefficient 0.912 and 0.940, respectively). The location of stone and presence of combined infection showed no significant impact on the accuracy of USG and CT measurement.
CONCLUSION
USG and neck CT showed high accuracy for predicting submandibular gland stone size. However, it should be taken into consideration that the stone size could be greater than that shown by preoperative measurement.