Doctors removed 53 stones from a 66-year-old Iraqi woman’s glands in an operation at a private hospital in Delhi. The largest stone was of 8mm. They were taken out of her salivary duct safely without any injury to the gland.
The woman was from Baghdad and had complained of recurrent swelling and pain in the parotid gland’s right side after drinking water and eating food. She came to India to have a ‘sialendoscopy’ performed on her wherein a 1.33mm small endoscope is inserted in parotid gland’s duct thus directly addressing the reason for her problem.
Her endoscopy revealed what doctors believed to be a large stone which was actually a cluster of smaller stones. Her operation took place in Sir Ganga Ram Hospital on September 29. The surgery took two hours to complete.
The parotid glands are a pair of main salivary glands located in front of each ear canal and located below them as well. Removing the stones without causing injury to the salivary duct was a huge challenge according to the doctors. The removal of the stones took place through the use of forceps and baskets without leaving a single cut on the body of the patient. Dr Varun Rai, ENT consultant at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital said that the stones were removed one by one in a painstaking endeavour. He also mentioned that having reviewed the literature worldwide, no other case of parotid gland having more than 25 stones has ever been reported. This makes the woman’s condition an anomaly.
The hospital claimed that the doctors in Baghdad had suggested a radical operation to the woman for her parotid gland’s removal. That procedure would have likely left her with a paralysed face.
