Sialendoscopy: Endoscopic Diagnosis and Treatment of the Salivary Gland Disease

Kim, Jae Won; Kim, Dae Hyung; Kim, Kyung Tae; Kim, Tae Youn; Ko, Kook Jin; Choi, Jeong Seok; Kim, Young Mo

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
Obstructive lesion of salivary glands by salivary duct calculi and stenosis is the main inflammatory disease of major salivary glands. Recently, the sialendoscopy has been introduced for the diagnosis and intervention of salivary ductal disease. The purpose of this study is to assess the efficacy of the sialendoscopy for the treatment of inflammatory salivary gland diseases. SUBJECTS AND METHOD: Diagnostic and interventional sialendoscopy were performed in 19 patients (7 parotid glands, 12 submandibular glands), who had salivary duct calculi or recurrent sialadenitis without calculi from 2003 Sep. to 2004 Jun. Diagnostic sialendoscopy was performed for obstructive lesions and evaluation of ductal status. Interventional sialendoscopy was performed for the removal of salivary duct calculi and dilatation of duct stenosis in cases with calculi and stenosis. RESULTS: Diagnostic sialendoscopy was performed in all cases successfully. Sixteen glands had obstructive lesions and 3 glands had sialadenitis with no evidence of obstruction. Only one case with salivary duct calculi was failed. The remaining 10 calculi were removed with microforceps and basket with or without laser fragmentation. The average size of sialoliths was 5.2 mm and multiple stones were found in 2 cases. Five cases with stenosis of parotid and submandibular gland duct were dilated with balloon catheter or endoscopy sheath successfully. In the remaining 3 glands with no obstruction, the finding of ductal inflammation was identified. No major complications were noted. CONCLUSIONS: Diagnostic sialendoscopy is a new and minimal invasive technique for complete exploration of ductal system and evaluating salivary duct disease. Interventional sialendoscopy allows the extraction of salivary duct calculi in most cases and the dilatation of stenotic duct. This technique might be useful in preventing open gland surgery in well indicated cases.