Limitations of Parotid Scans

Abstract

In 1967, Gates and Work proposed technetium scanning as a diagnostic tool for salivary neoplasms. Since then, many publications have dealt with the results of scanning. The impression has been that it has certain diagnostic implications, especially in regard to the lesion which is radiopositive on the scan. A review of 29 salivary scans from the University of Iowa Hospitals was carried out, and the conclusion reached was that nuclear scanning using technetium gave little assurance of a specific histological entity in any individual case. Cases having both cold and hot nodules ran the gamut from benign and nonneoplastic to frankly malignant lesions. These cases are illustrated, and the conclusion is reached that salivary scanning at its present stage of development may only delay the proper diagnostic step of excisional (at least lateral lobectomy) biopsy for all nondiffuse parotid mass lesions.