Salivary Gland Tumors
Dongyou Liu in Tumors and Cancers, 2017
Tumors of the salivary glands comprise a heterogeneous group of neoplasms with more than 24 different histologic subtypes. The salivary glands are relatively small organs involved in the making of saliva, which is composed of water, electrolytes, digestive enzymes, proteins, and metabolic wastes. Risk factors for salivary gland tumors include exposure to ionizing radiation, rubber product manufacturing, asbestos mining, plumbing, and woodworking. Patients with salivary gland tumors often present with a lump in the area of the ear, cheek, jaw, lip, or inside the mouth; trouble swallowing; drainage from the ipsilateral ear, dysphagia, and trismus; facial paralysis; and persistent facial pain. Complete surgical resection and/or radiotherapy represent the current mainstay treatment options for salivary gland tumors. Early stage tumors in the parotid gland can be usually treated by surgery alone and have a more favorable prognosis than those in the submandibular gland and the sublingual and minor salivary glands.
The salivary glands
Rogan J Corbridge in Essential ENT, 2011
The parotid gland is the largest of the paired salivary glands. It is a serious gland producing watery saliva. It is situated in the cheek, lying in the space between the mastoid process and the mandible. The innervation of the salivary glands follows a complex course. The salivary glands may be affected by a range of disease processes. Disease may be limited to a single gland, but there are also systemic disorders that may affect a number or all of the glands. There are three main paired salivary glands: the parotid, the submandibular and the sublingual. There are also many tiny minor salivary glands scattered around the oral cavity and the oropharynx. The two main symptoms that may arise from disease of the salivary glands are swelling and pain. Minor and major salivary glands are affected by the disease, which leads to reduced saliva flow and therefore xerostomia.
Gastrointestinal tract and salivary glands
A Stewart Whitley, Jan Dodgeon, Angela Meadows, Jane Cullingworth, Ken Holmes, Marcus Jackson, Graham Hoadley, Randeep Kumar Kulshrestha in Clark’s Procedures in Diagnostic Imaging: A System-Based Approach, 2020
The presence of saliva within the oral cavity is necessary to initiate the digestive process and it also acts as an important lubricant of the intraoral mucosa. Imaging has a role in evaluating the extent of salivary gland disease in patients who present with a dry mouth and those patients that present with pain prior to eating. There is a range of conditions that affect the salivary glands and these can be categorised as follows: acute or chronic inflammatory conditions; inflammatory obstruction secondary to ductal obstruction by a sialolith; cystic lesions; and space-occupying lesions that are either benign or malignant. The most common symptom is the relationship between the eating of food followed by the rapid swelling of the affected salivary gland(s). The pain may be acute or chronic and the extent of swelling can be generalised, recurrent or discrete.
Current trends in salivary gland tight junctions
Published in Tissue Barriers, 2016
Tight junctions form a continuous intercellular barrier between epithelial cells that is required to separate tissue spaces and regulate selective movement of solutes across the epithelium. They are composed of strands containing integral membrane proteins (e.g., claudins, occludin and tricellulin, junctional adhesion molecules and the coxsackie adenovirus receptor). These proteins are anchored to the cytoskeleton via scaffolding proteins such as ZO-1 and ZO-2. In salivary glands, tight junctions are involved in polarized saliva secretion and barrier maintenance between the extracellular environment and the glandular lumen. This review seeks to provide an overview of what is currently known, as well as the major questions and future research directions, regarding tight junction expression, organization and function within salivary glands.
A case of major salivary gland agenesis
Published in Acta Oto-Laryngologica, 2006
Soon-Young Kwon, Eun-Jae Jung, Seung-Hyun Kim, Tack-Koon Kim
Major salivary gland agenesis is a rare disorder and only a few instances of the condition have been reported. The number of absent salivary glands and the degree of associated xerostomia vary between individuals. Salivary gland agenesis can cause profound xerostomia in children and there may be oral and upper respiratory tract sequelae, such as dental caries, candidiasis, ascending sialadenitis, laryngitis and pharyngitis. Salivary gland aplasia may be associated with other ectodermal defects, particularly abnormalities of the lacrimal apparatus. We report on the first observation of major salivary gland agenesis in South Korea. A child with xerostomia should be appropriately investigated and diagnosed, and careful attention should be paid to the prevention and treatment of sequelae.
Congenital agenesis of all major salivary glands and absence of unilateral lacrimal puncta: A case report and review of the literature
Published in Acta Oto-Laryngologica, 2012
Zhimin Yan, Ning Ding, Xiaosong Liu, Hong Hua
Congenital agenesis of the salivary glands is an extremely rare congenital condition, which may cause severe xerostomia, progressive dental caries, and oropharyngeal candidiasis in children. To date, there have been few documented cases of aplasia of the major salivary glands. Congenital agenesis of the salivary glands accompanied by absence of the lacrimal puncta is even more rare. We report a case of a 5-year-old boy with xerostomia and extensive dental caries. Salivary gland imaging with sodium pertechnetate 99mTcO4 showed bilateral aplasia of the parotid, submandibular, and sublingual glands. The patient was found to lack the left lacrimal puncta through physical examination. Here we describe the clinical presentation, diagnostic essentials, and medical and dental management of the patient.
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