Impact of extent of parotidectomy on early and long-term complications: A prospective multicenter cohort trial

Background In this prospective nonrandomized multicenter trial, we analyze the incidence of early and late complications after parotidectomy in correlation to the extent of dissection. Methods A total of 148 patients underwent a parotidectomy for a benign lesion in the superficial lobe. The number of intraoperatively dissected main facial nerve branches was photo-documented and defined the extent of tissue dissection. Early postoperative complications including sialocele were evaluated until 4 weeks after surgery. Late complications as facial nerve palsy, Frey's syndrome (FS) and the outcome of the scar and substance loss were furthermore assessed after 6 and 12 months. Results Early complications occurred in 22 patients (14%) and did not depend on the extent of facial nerve dissection (all P > .05). However, patients with higher number of intraoperatively dissected facial nerve branches showed significantly higher palsy scores on the first postoperative day (P = .026). FS occurred with incidence of 69% and correlated significantly to the extent of dissection (P = .003). Appearance of the scar and substance loss improved significantly during the follow-up (P .05 for both variables after 12 months). Conclusions Less extensive tissue dissection resulted in better postoperative facial nerve function on the first postoperative day and in lower incidence of FS after 12 months. However, incidence of early complications did not depend on the extent of surgery. The study was registered in the German Clinical Trials Register prior to conducting the research. DRKS-ID: DRKS00008967, URL: