Sjögren's syndrome in children with recurrent parotitis

Abstract

Objective: Optimize the diagnosis of pediatric Sjögren's syndrome in children who present with parotitis.

Methods: Twenty children presented to a pediatric otolaryngology or rheumatology clinic with recurrent parotitis. Presenting symptoms, serologies, sialendoscopy findings, and minor salivary gland biopsy pathology results were reviewed.

Results: Twenty patients aged 3-17 years presented with recurrent parotitis. Ten percent of this cohort met the American-European Consensus Group adult diagnostic criteria for Sjögren's syndrome. Forty percent of this cohort met diagnosis of Sjögren's syndrome when utilizing Bartunkova's proposed pediatric criteria for diagnosis of Sjögren's syndrome.

Conclusion: Sjögren's syndrome is surprisingly common in pediatric patients who present with recurrent parotitis. Otolaryngologists who treat pediatric parotitis should have a high index of suspicion for Sjögren's syndrome.

Level of evidence: 4.

Keywords: Parotitis; Pediatric otolaryngology; Recurrent acute parotitis; Sjogren's syndrome.