Short-term outcomes of extracapsular dissection versus superficial parotidectomy in the management of benign parotid tumors: A prospective comparative study

Background
For decades, surgery for the treatment of benign tumors of the parotid gland was debatable. Extracapsular dissection (ECD) is a new technique for the excision of parotid-gland tumors and greatly differs from the classical surgical treatment options in that the facial nerve is not dissected. The study aims to highlight the results of ECD by comparing them to superficial parotidectomy (SP) for benign lesions of the parotid gland, with a special concern for recurrence rate and facial nerve injury.
Patients and methods
From May 2017 to May 2020, according to the availability of cases, 50 patients were diagnosed with benign tumors of the parotid gland and were admitted to the General Surgery Department of Ain Shams University Hospitals. After completing a full history, clinical examination, and investigations, the patients were divided into two groups using the sealed-envelope method: the SP group included 25 patients who underwent SP, and the ECD group included 25 patients who underwent ECD. Benign parotid tumors with a diameter of less than 4 cm and no deep-lobe invasion were included in the study. The minimum proposed follow-up period was decided to be 1 year to estimate the recurrence rate in both groups.
Results
The most common complaint in both groups was preauricular swelling. The operative time in the ECD group was 42.80 ± 5.54 min compared with 127.36 ± 16.36 min in the SP group. The most common pathological type in both groups was pleomorphic adenoma. The mean follow-up period was 34 ± 3.2 and 33.01 ± 3.1 months for the patients subjected to SP and ECD, respectively. In SP, one patient had a disease recurrence and one patient had sustained facial nerve paralysis. In ECD, one patient had a disease recurrence.
Conclusion
In terms of recurrence rates, ECD was comparable to SP.