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William F. McGuirt, Jr, MD; Chris Whang, MD; Wendy Moreland, MD

Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2002;128:1279-1281.

Objectives  To describe our experience with primary and secondary Sjögren syndrome (SS) in the pediatric population and to evaluate the effectiveness of parotid gland biopsy in the diagnosis of pediatric SS.

Design  Case series review of 6 pediatric patients evaluated during a 4-year period with varied head and neck manifestations of SS.

Setting  Tertiary care children's hospital.

Patients  Six children (4 boys and 2 girls) ranging in age from 6 to 12 years, who were diagnosed as having primary or secondary SS.

Intervention  Six minor salivary gland and 4 parotid gland biopsies for pathologic examination.

Main Outcome Measures  Pathologic examination of salivary tissue consistent with SS.

Results  All 6 patients underwent minor salivary gland biopsy, 2 (33%) were consistent with SS, while the remaining 4 (67%) were nondiagnostic. The 4 patients with nondiagnostic minor salivary gland biopsy results went on to have parotid biopsies, of which all 4 had histologic findings consistent with SS. No complications were encountered.

Conclusion  Parotid gland biopsy is an effective and safe means of obtaining salivary gland tissue for histologic evaluation of SS in the pediatric population.

From the Departments of Otolaryngology (Drs McGuirt and Whang) and Pathology (Dr Moreland), Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, Winston-Salem, NC.