Is Revision Surgery Necessary for Patients With High Risk of Recurrence After Parotidectomy? A Multicenter Retrospective Study.

Objectives: Close margin is a frequent situation after parotidectomy. The need for systematic prophylactic revision surgery is a question that arises regularly for malignant tumors, as it exposes to a high risk of facial palsy, while oncological benefits are unclear.

Study Design: retrospective study.

Setting: Multicentric.

Subjects And Methods: We included all patients operated for systematic revision surgery in case of close margins after parotidectomy for a malignant tumor and analyzed the rate of tumor residue and its risk factors.

Results: A tumor residue was identified in 43.5% of 23 cases, but none in case of initial complete excision with supra-millimetric margins. Invaded lymph nodes were identified in 6 cases, but none in case of low-grade tumors.

Conclusions: Systematic revision seems mandatory in case of infra-millimetric margins and high-grade tumors or positive lymph node; further studies are needed to confirm whether it can be spared for T1-T2/N0 low-grade tumors, with close margins but complete initial excision.