Parotid Surgery

The parotid gland is one of our major salivary glands and resides on the side of the face just in front of the ear.  The gland is divided into a superficial lobe and deep lobe by the facial nerve. The facial nerve is a major cranial nerve that comes out of the skull base from the brain just below and in front of our ear lobe.  It divides into multiple branches after exiting the skull base and controls all of our facial muscles that make us raise our eyebrows, close our eyes, pucker our lips, and smile.  Often times tumors develop in the parotid gland, these are usually benign in nature (80%) but may also be malignant (20%) at times.  Signs that a parotid tumor may be malignant are facial weakness or pain upon presentation.  When a parotid mass is identified then an evaluation by a board-certified head and neck surgeon is warranted for proper workup and then definitive treatment.  This work-up often includes an imaging study, usually an MRI for better delineation of soft tissue anatomy, and a fine needle aspiration of the mass.  Once this is complete then surgery is planned.

Parotid surgery is a very delicate and skillfully demanding procedure where the tumor needs to be removed in it’s entirety while preserving the facial nerve and it’s various branches.  As such you will want to have this procedure performed by a surgeon who does more than 10-20 of these procedures annually.  Our board certified head and neck surgeons, Dr. Alen Cohen and Dr. Jerome Vener, routinely perform parotid surgery in Los Angeles and Thousand Oaks to remove benign and malignant parotid masses. They are very mindful of cosmesis during this procedure and often times will utilize a hidden facelift or modified facelift incision to remove the tumor.  In many patients they utilize a minimally invasive facelift incision for removal of the parotid mass.  They are also one of a handful of surgeons who routinely use intraoperative facial nerve monitoring to monitor the nerve during dissection of the tumor so as to minimize injury to the nerve.  Lastly, Dr. Cohen and Dr. Vener with their extensive facial plastics experience, will often utilize a muscle flap to cover the defect after a parotidectomy so that you are not left with a large and hideous indentation on the side of your face.