Clinical Significance and Indication for Surgical Treatment of Occult Cervical and Intraglandular Nodal Involvement in Parotid Malignancy.

The rate of occult cervical metastases in the present study was surprisingly low (0%). However, owing to the various predictive factors, elective neck dissection should be performed for high-grade or locally advanced (stage T3-T4) parotid malignoma. Moreover, we highly recommend performing completion parotidectomy for all high-grade tumors and also for locally advanced (stage T3-T4) low-grade tumors, owing to the >12% of occult intraparotideal metastases found in the present study.