Abstract
Background: Surgical treatment for submandibular gland stones varies
depending upon the site and size of the submandibular gland. With the
transoral method, nerve damage and intraoperative bleeding in the direct
incision over the hilar stones are possible. We used the lateral oral
floor approach and report our procedure and the associated
complications. Methods: Surgery was performed under general anesthesia.
A 2–3 cm longitudinal mucosal incision was approximately parallel and
outside of the Wharton’s duct. The surrounding tissues were peeled away
and the incision was made just above the stone and the stone was
extracted. Results: 2 males and 5 females enrolled in this study, all
stones were removed without leaving residual stone fragments. One
patient had slight hypoesthesia on one side of the tongue, which
resolved in 1 month Conclusions: Hilar stone excision from the
submandibular gland was performed using the lateral oral floor approach.
There were few complications and the technique seemed to be effective
for relatively large hilar stones.