How can one remove salivary gland stones? - Dr. Sreenivasa Murthy T M

So how are the salivary gland stones removed? Now most stones will require some sort of intervention. There are occasional instances where the stone comes out of the natural orifice or the ductal opening which is there. But in majority of patients, it will need surgical intervention. Previously the surgical intervention would be an open approach, that is in the ductal system, we will make a cut and then open it and if was in the gland, the glans needed to be removed if it is causing repeated infections, whereas with the advent of the sialendoscope, we are able to remove the stones upto say 4 or 5 mm in the duct through the duct itself by using baskets. Sometimes we can use certain specialized lasers to burst into smaller pieces and then remove those stones and if they are more than 5 mm, the we need to do what is called as the combined approach. In combined approach we will be using the endoscope to localise where the stone is and then we will also make a small cut, either under the tongue that is the floor of the mouth where the stone is impacted and then trim it, that is we tend to stent the ductal system so that the future stenosis or strictures can be avoided.