Comparison of Short-Term Outcomes Following Surgical Intervention of Salivary Gland Malignancies in Adult and Pediatric Patients: A National Database Analysis

Background: Salivary gland malignancy (SGM) is a rare surgical pathology in the pediatric population, with currently ambiguous surgical management guidelines for the pediatric population. Therefore, we aim to use a national database to provide demographical and episode-of-care comparisons between the adult and pediatric population suffering from SGMs, with the interest of discovering baseline characteristic differences and outcomes, in addition to assessing the overall level of reporting at a national scale. Methods: The 2012 to 2019 American College of Surgeons’ National Surgical Quality Improvement Program Adult and Pediatric (ACS NSQIP, NSQIP-P) databases were queried to identify diagnoses of salivary gland malignancies based on postoperative ICD-10 codes. Age was stratified into adult (age ≥ 22 years) or pediatric (age