Clinical and Histopathological Spectrum of Salivary Gland Lesions in A Tertiary Center

Abstract

Background: The objective of this study was to determine the clinical pattern and histopathological features of salivary gland lesions (SGL) in patients presenting to a tertiary hospital in Southwest Saudi Arabia.  Methods: A retrospective study was conducted in histopathology section of Department of Laboratory Medicine from January 2014 to February 2018 on tissue specimens from salivary gland lesions. The histopathological diagnosis was made according to World health organization classification (2017) based on light microscopy followed by special stains and immunohistochemistry wherever necessary. Results: A total of 70 specimens were received in hospital during this period. These comprised of 8 inflammatory lesions and 62 tumors. Salivary gland tumors involved 29 males and 33 females, male: female ratio= 0.8:1 with mean age of 44.5 years. 46 (74.2%) were benign and 16 (25.8 %) were malignant. Parotid gland was involved in 47, submandibular gland in 4, sublingual gland in 3 and minor salivary glands in 8 cases.  Conclusions: Our study revealed that tumors are the commonest lesions in specimens of salivary gland  masses with pleomorphic adenomas being the predominant  tumor (51.6%) . Parotid  was the most commonly involved gland with majority of the tumors being benign (82.9%). Submandibular gland was involved by benign lesions in 87.5 % cases out of which 50 % were inflammatory in nature . Sublingual and minor salivary glands were predominantly affected by malignant tumors constituting 70 % of cases.