A 25 YEAR REVIEW OF PAROTID SURGERY

At a single institution over 25 years, 110 patients were operated upon for a mixture of parotid disease, The mean duration of symptoms for b enign disease was 40.8 months compared with 15.6 months for malignant disease, Pain was a significant feature of malignant parotid disorders (46.1% compared with 17.8% for benign conditions), The pathology of t hese masses was diverse, with pleomorphic adenoma being the commonest (44%), Superficial parotidectomy was the commonest procedure employed (69/110) with local excision being performed only prior to 1984 (15/11 0), There were fire cases of permanent facial palsy, all following rad ical resection for malignancy. One patient developed Frey's syndrome, Recurrence rate for pleomorphic adenomas was 7/48 (15%), three followi ng enucleations prior to 1984, In primary malignancy of the parotid, 3 /21 (14%) developed recurrences. Parotid tumours have a low incidence, Surgery for these tumours can be safely performed by those with a spe cial interest in parotid surgery.