Evaluation and management of juvenile recurrent parotitis in children from northern Greece

Background: Juvenile Recurrent Parotitis (JRP) is a recurrent parotid inflammation of childhood. The aim of our study was to investigate the clinical, laboratory and imaging profile of children with JRP as well as to estimate the impact of siadendoscopy as a therapeutic tool in the clinical outcome of JRP. Methods: Twenty-three children with JRP aged 3.5-16 years, were investigated. Twelve of them underwent sialendoscopy: seven aged <8 years under general and five aged >8 years under local anesthesia. Results: The age at onset ranged from 2-15 years while the number of episodes from 2-8 per year. The autoantibody profile was negative in all patients, suggesting no evidence for autoimmune diseases. Antibody deficiency was found in two children. The imaging studies reveal an overall parotid swelling and intraparotid lymph nodes while microabscesses were present in 31% of the patients. Twelve patients who underwent sialendoscopy had a significant improvement in their clinical outcome; the mean episodes of JRP before sialendoscopy was 3.9/year and reduced to 0.4 at the postintervention year. Conclusion: Sialendoscopy represents an alternative and promising perspective in the management of JRP.