Clinical Management of Salivary Gland Disorders 2024

My interest in salivary gland disorders originated when I was a graduate student many years ago. Consequently, I have had ample opportunity to evaluate patients victimized by a wide variety of salivary gland diseases. Inevitably, I developed “smarts” or what is referred to as clinical expertise. In addition to my examinations of the more familiar salivary gland afflictions, my experiences have allowed me to become familiar with a group of salivary gland conditions that nowadays are seen infrequently. Surgical (acute) parotitis and HIV lymphoepithelial cysts represent examples of this cohort of salivary gland problems. Furthermore, the passage of time has allowed me to accumulate and evaluate a collection of false/positive patients. I have attempted to incorporate into this text the knowledge that I have acquired from my exposure to the full gamut of salivary gland disorders and to those entities (the false/positives) that mimic salivary gland pathology. A huge step forward in my ability to evaluate salivary gland disorders occurred in 1988 with the establishment of the Columbia University Salivary Gland Center. The impetus for its establishment came from Dr. Irwin Mandel (no relation of mine, just a coincidence in names) who had a background in biochemistry and was inter ested in the biochemistry of saliva. I am a clinician and he thought that we would make a perfect team, we did. As you peruse this book, you will note that some chapters allude to salivary chemistry, a reflection of Dr. Irwin Mandel’s influence upon me.