Indications for surgical treatment of major salivary gland pathologies with epidemiology analysis in adults - cohort study of 1173 cases

Aim: The summary of indications for surgical treatment of major salivary glands in adults hospitalized in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery of the Medical University of Warsaw.Materials and methods: The retrospective analysis was based on the 1173 postoperative pathological studies of the salivary glands collected over a period of 10 years (2010-2020). Analysis included pathologic diagnosis, location of lesions, multifocality, complete resection, lymph node involvement, as well as demographic data such as sex and age.Results: Over half (61.38%) of all indications for surgical treatment of the salivary glands were benign tumors (n = 720) with the most common being pleomorphic adenoma, which accounted for 33.5% of all cases (n = 393). The next most frequent group of diagnoses were non-neoplastic diseases of the salivary glands, with 24.98% of all cases (n = 293). Malignant neoplasms of the salivary glands acco-unted for 13.64% of all diagnoses (n = 160). Salivary gland diseases slightly predominated among females, with a particularly pronoun-ced predominance of pleomorphic adenoma. Males, on the other hand, were treated more often for malignant neoplasms. The mean age of the patients was the lowest in the group of non-neoplastic diseases of the salivary glands. The mean age of patients with mali-gnant neoplasms was significantly higher than in other pathologies. The largest tumors' size was identified for malignant neoplasms. Diseases of the salivary glands treated surgically were most often located in the parotid gland, except for non-neoplastic diseases, which most often affected the submandibular gland.Conclusions: Surgical management in pathologies of the salivary glands applies to all types of lesions, both neoplastic and non-neoplastic. Patients with a particular disease are characterized by a different structure of age, sex and location of lesions.