NEONATAL SUPPURATIVE PAROTITIS

Abstract

Ten patients with neonatal suppurative parotitis were seen at Children's Hospital Medical Center in the past 20 years. This makes nearly 100 cases in the world literature since 1878. The Center patients, 6 males and 4 females, ranged in age from birth to 23 days at the onset of symptoms. The diagnosis was made on the basis of parotid gland swelling and suppuration from Stensen's duct. Cultures of pus draining from Stenson's duct yielded Staphylococcus aureus from 6 patients, all of whom survived, E. coli from two patients, one of whom survived, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Neisseria catarrhalis from one patient each, both of whom died. All patients were treated with antibiotics except one who received only radiation. Four patients seen in the period 1948 to 1958 received low dose radiation varying from 75 to 300 R on each side. Two patients with fluctuance in the parotid had incision and drainage. Prognosis in the infant without other pathology is good. In the congenitally abnormal patient, the prognosis is poor.