Surgical Consideration of Parotid Tumors

Abstract

Abstract 1. 1. Seventy cases of parotid tumors treated at Spokane Hospital over a four-year period have been analyzed and summarized. 2. 2. The surgical procedure of choice in treatment of parotid tumors depends upon the location of the tumor: whether localized within the parotid gland or outside of it, whether encapsulated or diffusely infiltrative. One operating upon parotid tumors must be qualified in the surgical procedures used and must have a thorough knowledge of the anatomy of the parotid gland, the facial nerve and the auriculotemporal nerve. 3. 3. The true pathologic condition is revealed only by the microscopic pathology. Frozen section should be taken at the time of surgery to determine how radical the procedure must be to cure the patient of his disease. 4. 4. The approach to treatment of various lesions has been discussed and outlined, and the classification of parotid tumors on microscopic examination has been analyzed. 5. 5. All parotid tumors should be removed surgically as soon as discovered for the same reason that we recommend removal of breast tumors and solitary nodules of the thyroid; they are potentially malignant until proved by microscopic tissue study.