title: Outcome, general, and symptom-specific quality of life after various types of parotid resection.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To document the outcome and impact on general and symptom-specific quality of life (QOL) after various types of parotid resection.
  
  
  METHODS
  General and symptom-specific QOL assessment at least 1 year after performed surgery. Retrospective data and outcome analysis of patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  Between 2004 and 2010, 353 parotid resections in 337 patients were conducted at the Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University Teaching Hospital, St. Mary's Hospital Gelsenkirchen, Gelsenkirchen, Germany. A total of 196 patients fit the inclusion criteria and were available for postoperative evaluation. The general QOL assessment was based on both the global health status and global QOL scales of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Quality-of-Life Questionnaire in 34 patients. Symptom-specific QOL was assessed with the Parotidectomy Outcome Inventory-8 (POI-8). In addition, aesthetic outcome was evaluated with an ordinal scale.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Outcome of parotidectomies in benign disease has little impact on general QOL and global health status. However, hypoesthesia or dysesthesia, Frey's syndrome, and cosmetic discontent are quite common and may affect symptom-specific and general QOL. Correlation with extent of surgery and statistically significant differences of patient evaluation for aesthetic outcome, sensory impairment, and Frey's syndrome between various types of limited parotid surgery (enucleation, extracapsular dissection, partial superficial parotidectomy) and superficial parotidectomy could be shown.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  An adequate parotid resection technique must be chosen to achieve the least disturbing outcome. In addition, in our patient collective, there was no increased recurrence rate found after limited parotid resection for pleomorphic adenoma or cystadenolymphoma.
authors.affiliation: Department for Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, St. Mary's Hospital Gelsenkirchen, Gelsenkirchen, Germany. ciuman.raphael@cityweb.de
authors.forename: Raphael Richard
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Ciuman
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Oels
authors.forename: Rolf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Jaussi
authors.forename: Philipp
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dost
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004954:Esthetics; D005158:Facial Paralysis / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010149:Postoperative Pain / Q000503:physiopathology; D010305:Parotid Diseases / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D010306:Parotid Gland / Q000601:surgery*; D010307:Parotid Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011788:Quality of Life; D012086:Reoperation; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D018434:Sickness Impact Profile; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013524:Surgical Flaps / Q000098:blood supply*; D013547:Sweating, Gustatory / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D016896:Treatment Outcome