As upper-gastrointestinal endoscopy has been more widely used for the diagnosis and treatment of upper gastrointestinal diseases, some complications such as bleeding, perforation, arrhythmia, aspiration pneumonia, infection, and drug reaction of
premedication were reported. Also a few case of salivary gland swelling complicated by endoscopy was described, but the precise mechanism of this benign complication is not well-known.
The hypothesized mechanisms for salivary gland swelling are 1) air distension of blind branchial cleft remmants, 2) compression of its duct between the mylohyoid and hyoglossus muscles from pressure above, during a time of increased salivary flow
from
oral stimulation, 3) forward and downward dislocation of gland by the force that occurs when endoscope pushes the tongue, and 4) reaction to topical anesthesia less likely.
Here we report 5 cases of salivary galnd swelling with a review of the literature, explaining possible mechanism of each case.
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