The Sum Ultimate has become the first hospital in Odisha where sialoendoscopy, an innovative technique that uses extremely narrow endoscopes for diagnostic and therapeutic purpose of many conditions of salivary gland, has been started recently. Dr Radhamadhab Sahu, Head of ENT & Skull Base Surgery of the hospital, recently removed stones from submandibular gland duct by sialoendoscopy and made the gland functional again in a young adult. “The previous norm was that whenever patients were suffering from chronic sialadenitis, the entire salivary gland was removed by giving a visible scar in neck.
Sialoendoscopy is a promising new method for use in the diagnosis, treatment and post-operative management of sialoadenitis, sialolithiasis and other obstructive salivary gland diseases,” Dr Sahu said. The procedure called sialoendoscopy where an extremely small endoscope measuring just 1.3 mm is introduced into duct of salivary gland and the cause of obstruction is directly addressed. he added.
Dehydration and poor eating habits are considered culprits that can lead to formation of salivary duct stones. Not drinking enough fluids can make saliva concentrated and not eating enough can cause reduction in saliva production forming salivary duct stones. “The 38-year-old young male from Bhubaneswar approached us with recurrent swelling in upper part of neck in left side. His main complaint was that whenever he sat down for a meal, he would feel some lump appearing in his neck; after some hour lump used to disappear remains pain-free till he took the next meal.
The patient was diagnosed with sub mandibular duct stones and stones were removed successfully by sialoendoscopy without leaving any scar. Subsequently, the submandibular gland was preserved too,” Dr Sahu added.