Application of Delayed Surgical Managements in Patients with Stensen's Duct Injury.

The study aimed to retrospectively evaluate surgical treatment outcomes after delayed parotid gland and duct injuries. Nine patients subjected to parotid gland and duct injuries with 1- to 3-month treatment delay were retrospectively evaluated with special reference of etiology, past medical history, and injury location. Conservative treatment, microsurgical anastomosis, and diversion of salivary flow or ligation were chosen for delayed parotid gland and duct injuries concerning to their site of injury, time of repair and procedures. Assistant treatment as pressure dressing was adopted thereafter. All patients experienced an uneventful recovery at the time of finalizing the study. Two patients received Stensen's duct ligation, 5 received microsurgical anastomosis and 2 accepted salivary flow diversion for 5 patients with sialoceles and 4 patients with fistulas, and no re-occurrence was found. Facial paralysis occurred after surgery in 4 patients, and 3 of them recovered after the nerve nutrition treatment. Our study suggested that appropriate surgical treatment is efficient for the re-establishment of the tissue function and facial aesthetic for delayed injury of the parotid and its duct.

A novel method in the removal of impacted mandibular third molar: buccal drainage.

Food impaction after impacted mandibular third molar extraction is a serious problem that should not be ignored. Incomplete suturing of the distal incision in the conventional method is the main cause of food impaction and delayed wound healing. The present study introduces a novel suture and drainage technology that requires hermetic suturing of the distal incision and rubber drainage for buccal drainage. 76 patients with horizontally/mesially impacted third molars (bilateral) were enrolled in this prospective study. An impacted tooth on one side of each patient was extracted by occlusal drainage using the conventional method, whereas the other side tooth was extracted by buccal drainage using the novel method. The differences in wound healing, facial swelling, bleeding and dry socket between the two sides of each patient were compared postoperatively, and the trends for patient selection of the surgical method were also compared. The results indicated that buccal drainage had obvious advantages in wound healing and reduced the risk of postoperative bleeding, and most patients preferred this technique; there were no significant differences in postoperative facial swelling or pain. Thus, buccal drainage can solve the problem of long-term food impaction induced by traditional incision postoperatively and is worthy of clinical promotion.