Medical expert of the article
New publications
Küttner's Syndrome
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
All iLive content is medically reviewed or fact checked to ensure as much factual accuracy as possible.
We have strict sourcing guidelines and only link to reputable media sites, academic research institutions and, whenever possible, medically peer reviewed studies. Note that the numbers in parentheses ([1], [2], etc.) are clickable links to these studies.
If you feel that any of our content is inaccurate, out-of-date, or otherwise questionable, please select it and press Ctrl + Enter.
Kuttner's syndrome (synonyms: sclerosing inflammation of submandibular salivary glands, Kuttner's "inflammatory tumor") was described in 1897 by N. Kuttner as a disease involving a simultaneous increase in both the submaxillary glands, whose clinical picture resembles a tumor process.
[Causes of Kuttner's Syndrome
The etiology of the disease is unknown. Currently, doctors suggest that the cause of the disease is diabetes, probably 1 type. The disease is often a precursor to the development of diabetes, which can clinically be detected at a later date after the discovery of sialadenosis.
Symptoms of Kuttner's Syndrome
Patients are concerned about painless swelling of soft tissues in the submandibular regions, the clinical picture of which resembles a benign tumor. When examining patients is determined by a violation of the configuration of the face due to the symmetrical swelling of the soft tissues in the submandibular regions.
The clinic is repeatedly treated by patients who, in connection with the "allegedly swelling" of the submaxillary glands, remove one of them. After receiving the results of the pathomorphological examination, a chronic inflammation of the salivary glands was detected (as happened with Kuttner), then the patients were sent to a specialist, which indicated the difficulties of differential diagnosis of the disease.
Skin in color does not change, palpation is defined by dense, painless, submandibular glands relatively mobile. The regional lymph nodes remain within the anatomical norm. The mouth opens freely. The mucous membrane remains pale pink in color. There is a decrease in secretion from the submandibular ducts, sometimes significant. In the late stage of iron, it can intimately co-exist or fuse with the mucosa of the oral cavity. Body temperature remains within normal limits, the general condition does not change.
Diagnosis of Kuttner's Syndrome
In the pathomorphologic examination of the distant salivary glands, chronic interstitial inflammation of the salivary gland is revealed, marked expansion of the connective tissue, and locally pronounced small cell infiltration. Slices of the salivary gland are retained, but they are compressed by connective tissue and shallow infiltration.
Sialometry shows a decrease in the functional activity of the salivary glands, at times quite pronounced. Cytological examination of the secret allows us to identify individual cells of the inflammatory series. Sialograms determine the expressed sclerosis of the gland: the channels of medium and small calibers are not filled with contrast medium due to their compression by connective tissue, the parenchyma is not detected, ducts of the first order are visible.
Treatment of Kuttner's syndrome
The treatment of patients with Küttner syndrome is a difficult task. Use long courses of Novocain blockades with mexidol on the area of the submaxillary glands. A good effect can sometimes be obtained after hyperbaric oxygen therapy. It is possible to obtain a short-term therapeutic effect after using antispasmodics. Corticosteroid and radiation therapy are ineffective. The tactic of surgical removal of the glands proposed earlier is not expedient.
The prognosis for Kuttner's syndrome is favorable, after recovery, recovery comes.
Some authors refer to sialadenosis as a dysfunction of the salivary glands with an unclear genesis, in which the leading symptom is xerostomia or hypersalivation.