Determining the number and distribution of intraparotid lymph nodes according to parotidectomy classification of European Salivary Gland Society: Cadaveric study

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BACKGROUND: To investigate the distribution of the parotid gland's intraglandular lymph nodes using the parotidectomy zones determined by the parotidectomy classification of the European Salivary Gland Society (ESGS). MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 128 parotid glands were dissected from 64 fresh cadavers, by bilateral parotidectomy without additional incision within the standard autopsy procedure, and categorized. RESULTS: Eighty-six percent of the IGLNs were located in the superficial lobe and 14% in the deep lobe. An average of 7.09 ± 3.55 IGLNs were found for each of the gland; there were 6.11 ± 3.28 in the superficial lobe and 0.98 ± 1.46 in the deep lobe. While the most common lymph nodes were found in level 2 with 47.7%, only 5% of IGLNs were at level 4. According to the proposed modification, the most common lymph nodes (35.24%) were located at level 2B. CONCLUSION: Level 2B was found to contain significantly more lymph nodes than other levels, which has not been evaluated before in literature.