Retroauricular Hairline Incision and V-Shaped Incision for Parotidectomy

Abstract

Background and Objectives There have not been any studies that compared retroauricular hairline (RAH) and V-shaped incisions for parotidectomy. In this regard, we aimed to evaluate the results of RAH and V-shaped incisions.Subjects and Method Between 2016 and 2019, 81 patients who underwent parotidectomy using RAH (n=46) and V-shaped (n=35) incisions were included in this study. Patient characteristics, tumor profiles, surgical parameters, postoperative complications, and cosmetic results were assessed. Mann-Whitney U test and the chi-squared test were used to inspect differences in continuous and categorical variables between the groups, respectively.Results In the RAH and V-shaped groups, the patient age was 52.7 and 42.1 years, respectively (p=0.002), and the tumour size was 2.7 and 1.8 cm, respectively (p<0.001). All parotidectomies were successfully completed with no incision extension or major complications. There were no significant differences in surgical parameters and postoperative complications between the two groups. The subjective scar satisfaction scores assessed at 3 months postoperatively were 9.0 and 9.3 in the RAH and V-shaped groups, respectively (p=0.191). The scores of male patients were 8.9 and 9.5 in the RAH and V-shaped groups, respectively, (p=0.026), while those of the female patients were 9.2 and 9.2, respectively (p=0.906).Conclusion The RAH and V-shaped incisions yields comparable surgical and cosmetic outcomes, with high patient satisfaction. For male patients, the use of V-shaped incision, if indicated, would provide higher scar satisfaction than the use of RAH incision.