34th Annual Scientific Meeting proceedings

Objectives:

To investigate increase in length of mandibular and sublingual salivary gland-duct complex exposure and completeness of excision with tunnelling deep to digastricus in cats using a lateral versus ventral approach.

Methods:

Bilateral mandibular and sublingual sialadenectomy was performed in nine feline cadavers using ventral (n=9 glands) versus lateral (n=9 glands) approach in randomised fashion. The mandibular and sublingual salivary gland-duct complex was dissected as cranial as possible with retraction of digastricus and masseter muscles, until it travelled deep to digastricus and no further salivary tissue could be exposed. At this point, a ligature was placed around the salivary gland-duct complex. Tunnelisation deep to digastricus was performed and dissection continued rostral to lingual nerve to sublingual caruncle where the gland-duct complex was excised. The distance from monostomatic part of sublingual gland to the ligature was compared with the distance to the level of excision with unpaired t-tests. Histopathology of additional salivary tissue exposed with tunneling was performed.

Results:

With both ventral and lateral approaches, the lingual nerve could be identified with retraction of digastricus and masseter muscles without tunnelling. Tunnelling was associated with a significant increase in length of salivary gland-duct exposure with both ventral and lateral approaches (P=0.0026 and P=0.0049, respectively). Histopathology identified clear evidence of salivary glandular tissue in 13/15 specimens, a small duct alone in one, and suspect very autolysed glandular tissue in one.

Conclusions:

Tunnelling deep to digastricus is not required to visualise the lingual nerve in cats but increases length of salivary gland-duct complex exposure and completeness of excision.