Long-term outcome of a cohort of 272 patients undergoing sialendoscopy

OBJECTIVES: To assess the cohort of patients undergoing sialendoscopic intervention for improvement of symptoms and gland-related quality of life at long-term follow-up. DESIGN: This is a retrospective review of medical records with a prospective follow-up by questionnaire. SETTING & PARTICIPANTS: All patients undergoing sialendoscopy at the University Hospitals Leuven Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery between March 2008 and June 2020. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The electronic files of the patients were searched for information about their sialendoscopic procedure and follow-up consultations. We also send the patients a questionnaire by mail to assess symptom control and gland-related quality of life at long-term follow-up. RESULTS: Two hundred seventy-two sialendoscopies were performed in 221 patients. Median follow-up time was 37 months. The sialendoscopies were performed in 130 patients for lithiasis, in 66 for stenosis, in 14 for recurrent parotitis of childhood, in 8 for recurrent sialadenitis of unknown origin and in 3 for radioiodine-induced sialadenitis. Complications occurred in 11 of 272 sialendoscopies (4%). Those were iatrogenic perforations, temporary lingual nerve paresthesia and swelling of the floor of the mouth. 53% of patients returned the questionnaire, for a total of 146 evaluable sialendoscopies. The majority of the responders indicated that sialendoscopy had improved their symptoms (83.6%). Salivary glands could be preserved in 89% of the responder group. The highest percentage of patients reporting residual symptoms was found in the RPC group (81.3%) and the lowest in the lithiasis group (16.2%). Besides age, no statistical differences in demographic and pathological features between the responder and non-responder groups were found, supporting generalisation of the responders' results to the entire cohort. CONCLUSIONS: This study confirms the good long-term outcomes of sialendoscopic interventions in patients with chronic sialadenitis of different aetiologies and a high rate of gland preservation.