Investigation of Salivary Gland Pathology

Salivary gland pathology is diverse in nature and mainly inflammatory or neoplastic. Salivary gland tumours present as painless enlarging masses. Most of the tumours are located in parotid glands and many of them are benign. The management of these tumours is difficult just like the diagnosis of benign and malignant tumours. Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology (FNAC) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans provide some useful information in diagnosis, but most of the tumours will require surgical excision as a means of coming to a definitive diagnosis. Surgical approach is adequate for benign tumours and early low grade malignancies whereas post operative radiotherapy is needed for more advanced and high grade tumours with regional lymph node metastasis. The role of chemotherapy remains largely palliative. This article throws light on some of the more important aspects in the investigations of salivary gland pathologies.