A Case of Pneumoparotitis

Abstract

We report a case of a 9-year-old boy with pneumoparotitis. This patient complained of recurrent swelling on the left-side of his neck. Crepitation could be heard around the left parotid gland and neck and bubble saliva was dischaged from the Stensen's duct when the left parotid gland was pressed. Radiologic evaluation revealed pneumoparotitis associated with subcutaneous emphysema. A probe was inserted into the Stensen's duct, and although we were not successful in draining all the air out of the parotid gland, the duration of swelling was extremely reduced after the probe was inserted.
Although we could not discover the cause of this pneumoparotitis, we suspected that the Stensen's duct might act as a check valve, related to sialectasis.