gms | German Medical Science

Objective: To document the outcome and its impact on general and symptom-specific quality of life (QOL) after various types of parotid resection.

Study Design: General and symptom-specific Quality of Life Assessment one year after performed surgery at least. Retrospective data and outcome analysis of our patients. Patients and methods: Between 2004 and 2010 414 parotid resections in 380 patients were conducted at the Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University Teaching Hospital, Marienhospital Gelsenkirchen, Germany. A total of 219 patients fit the inclusion criteria and were available for postoperative evaluation. The general quality of life assessment was based on both, the global health status and global quality of life scales of the EORTC QLQ-C30. Symptom-specific QOL was assessed with the Parotidectomy Outcome Inventory 8 (POI-8) of Baumann et al. In addition aesthetic outcome was evaluated with an ordinal scale.

Results: Outcome of parotidectomies in benign disease has few impact on general quality of life and global health status. However hypoesthesia or dysesthesia, Frey’s syndrome and cosmetic discontent exist quite common and may affect symptom-specific and general quality of life. Correlation and statistical significant differences for patient evaluation of aesthetic outcome, sensory impairment and Frey's syndrome between various types of limited parotid surgery (enucleation, extracapsular dissection, partial superficial parotidectomy) and superficial parotidectomy could be shown.

Conclusion: Adequate parotid resection technique has to be chosen to achieve for the patient the least disturbing outcome. Besides our study could not find an increased recurrence rate after limited parotid resection for pleomorphic adenoma or cystadenolymphoma.

Key words: parotid gland, parotidectomy, quality of life, facial nerve, Frey’s syndrome, hypoaesthesia