Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-sxzjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T02:24:11.066Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Surgery of sialorrhoea

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 June 2007

S. L. Sellars*
Affiliation:
Cape Town, South Africa
*
Professor S. L. Sellars, Department of Otolaryngology, Medical School, Observatory, 7925, Cape, South Africa.

Summary

The drooling that accompanies motor neurone disorders adds to the burden of an individual already severely handicapped socially. Control of this problem can be achieved by a number of measures, such as the surgical repositioning of the salivary gland ducts and by use of medical or surgical means of reducing salivary production.

Nineteen patients aged 5 to 9 years, with excessive drooling as a result of perinatal brain damage, have been treated surgically at Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town, by bilateral tympanic neurectomies, unilateral chorda tympani nerve section and contralateral submandibular gland excision. In all 19, salivary flow was reduced and the drooling problem significantly improved. No post-operative complications occurred.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © JLO (1984) Limited 1985

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Diamant, H. and Kumlien, A. (1974) A treatment for drooling in children with cerebral palsy. Journal of Laryngology and Otology, 88: 6164.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Diamant, H. and Wiberg, A. (1965) Does the chorda tympani in man contain secretory fibres for the parotid gland? Acta Otolaryngologica, 60: 255264.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ekedahl, C. (1974) Surgical treatment of drooling. Acta Otolaryngologica, 77: 215220.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Golding-Wood, P. H. (1962) Tympanic neurectomy. Journal of Laryngology and Otology, 76: 683693.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lempert, J. (1946) Tympanosympathectomy. Archives of Otolaryngology, 43: 199212.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mills, C. P. (1975) Cricopharyngeal sphincterotomy and bilateral division of the chorda tympani in bulbar palsy. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, 68: 644646.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Parisier, S. C., Blitzer, A., Binder, J., Friedman, W. F. and Marovitz, W. F. (1978) Tympanic neurectomy and chorda tympanectomy for control of drooling. Archives of Otolaryngology, 104: 273277.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Townsend, G. L., Morimoto, A. M. and Kralemann, H. (1973) Management of sialorrhoea in mentally retarded patients by transtympanic neurectomy. Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 48: 776779.Google ScholarPubMed
Wallenborn, W. M., Hsu, Y. T. and Olinger, B. R. (1968) The experimental production of parotid gland atrophy. Laryngoscope, 78: 13141328.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Yoel, J. and Markman, I. (1963) The surgical treatment of sialorrhoea. Journal of the International College of Surgeons, 39: 261268.Google Scholar