CLINICOPATHOLOGICAL STUDY OF SALIVARY GLAND SWELLING

Introduction: Although the salivary, sweat, apocrine, and mammary glands all have similar phylogeny and cellular phenotypes, many lesions are unique to the salivary glands.  Various studies around the world reported incidence for all salivary glands tumors to be between 0.4 and 13.5 cases/100,000. Salivary gland swellings can be broadly classified into inflammatory, non- inflammatory and neoplastic swellings. Acute inflammatory conditions generally can be diagnosed by history and physical examination alone, whereas chronic inflammatory diseases and granulomatous disorders require supplemental diagnostic information including lab tests, imaging studies and biopsy. Accurate pathological diagnosis is necessary for proper management of neoplastic disorders. In this part of the world, the problem of these tumours is more troublesome in management because of their late presentation due to poor economic condition and lack of awareness of health among the general population. It is important to note that diffuse swellings usually signify disease of inflammatory nature. Discrete swelling within the gland usually indicates neoplasia and rarely replace entire gland until very late. Submandibular gland tumours are twice as likely to be malignant, compared to parotid. Sublingual gland tumours are unusual, 80% are malignant.  Material and Methods: Patients included were those admitted to surgical wards with salivary gland swellings due to obstructions of the salivary duct and neoplasia and were willing to participate in the study for investigation and treatment. Patients, hemoglobin level, bleeding time, clotting time, urine, sugar albumin, microscopy, chest screening, ECG, Blood urea, serum Creatinine, RBS was estimated. Specific investigations like FNAC, X-rays of Mandible were done for all patients in the study group. After evaluation of the swellings by clinical examination and by specific investigations, a surgical plan was formulated. The final decision was taken per operatively by the surgeon. The required specimen was sent for histopathologocal examinations. Different modalities of treatment adopted in this study were, surgery or surgery and post-operative radiotherapy. Results: Age of the patients varied from 9 years to 80 years. Average age of the patient was 40.6 years. Out of 40 cases 15(35%) cases was of male and 25(65%) cases of female. 62.5% (25 cases) were found in the parotid gland, 30% cases (12) in submandibular gland and 7.5% cases (3) in the sublingual gland. Out of 40 cases, neoplastic lesions of 65.0 %( 25 cases) and non-inflammatory non neoplastic lesions of 37.5% (15 cases) were seen. Out of 25 salivary gland Keywords: SALIVARY GLAND, TUMOUR, MALIGNANT, BENIGN, FNAC, HISTOPATHOLOGY