Pediatric salivary gland lesions.

The salivary glands comprise three main pairs of glands (ie, the parotid, the submandibular, and the sublingual) and a number of minor glands found in the mucosa of the upper aerodigestive tract. Lesions may be inflammatory or obstructive in nature or may stem from granulomatous or neoplastic disease. As such, establishing a definitive diagnosis is often quite challenging. This article reviews widely used diagnostic approaches and briefly describes various salivary gland lesions within an etiologic framework.