Comparison of methods of imaging the salivary glands.

Surgery on the salivary glands can be a considerable surgical challenge because of their complex and delicate structure. To avoid damage to the facial nerve, and because pleomorphic adenomas are the most common space-occupying lesions of the parotid glands, a formal parotidectomy is often undertaken. To plan the surgical approach better and to avoid unnecessary surgery in some patients, the search for the ultimate imaging technique for the salivary glands continues. A few recent reports comparing various imaging techniques for the salivary glands are discussed in this review.