The risk of facial nerve palsy after benign parotidectomy. A quality project

Figures & data

Figure 1. Participant inclusion flowchart. *Reactive lymphadenopathy (n = 4), sialolithiasis (n = 1), parotid abscess (n = 2), inflammation (n = 1), schwannoma (n = 2), lymphangioma (n = 1), sarcoidosis (n = 2) and Langerhans’ cell histiocytosis (n = 1). Abbreviations: OUH: Odense University Hospital.

Table 1. Characteristics of study participants.

	Total n = 160	No facial nerve palsy n = 154	Postoperative facial nerve palsy n = 6	p-Value
Age, years	59 [48–69]	59 [48–69]	58 [35–66]	.587
Sex				.338
Female	76 (47.5 %)	72 (46.8 %)	4 (66.7 %)
Male	84 (52.5 %)	82 (53.3 %)	2 (33.3 %)
Facial nerve dissection				.856
Yes	48 (30.0 %)	46 (29.9 %)	2 (33.3 %)
No	112 (70.0 %)	108 (70.1 %)	4 (66.7 %)
Tumour type				.258
Pleomorphic adenoma	81 (50.6 %)	76 (49.4 %)	5 (83.3 %)
Warthin’s tumour	71 (44.4 %)	70 (45.5 %)	1 (16.7 %)
Other	8 (5.0 %)	8 (5.2 %)	0 (0 %)
Tumours max diameter (n = 155), mm	20 [15–25]	20 [15–25]	18.5 [15–21]	.471

Differences between the no facial nerve palsy and the postoperative facial nerve palsy groups were tested using the two-sample Wilcoxon rank sum (Mann–Whitney) test for comparing medians of non-normally distributed variables. Pearson’s χ² test was used for comparing distributions of categorical variables. Values are median [Q1–Q3] for continuous variables and count (proportion) for categorical variables.

Table 2. Parotid tumour histopathology.

Tumour type	Patients (n (%))
Pleomorphic adenoma	81 (50.6 %)
Warthin’s tumour	71 (44.4 %)
Oncocytoma	3 (1.9 %)
Epithelial cyst	3 (1.9 %)
Canalicular adenoma	1 (0.6 %)
Castleman disease	1 (0.6 %)