Bilobed Sialolipoma of Parotid Gland A Rare Entity

Lipoma is the most common benign tumour which occurs anywhere in the body where adipose tissue is present which is asymptomatic, slow growing and painless. The lipoma consists of mature adipose tissue and occurs commonly in region of back, shoulder and nape of neck. Adipose tissue also exists in the parotid gland, but lipoma of the parotid gland is rare entity. The incidence of this entity has been reported to be about 1% ranging from 0.6% to 4.4% [1]. The exact aetiology of parotid lipoma is not known. The occurrence of parotid lipoma has been most commonly correlated to the trauma in this region but exact pathophysiological mechanism is not described [2]. Lipoma is benign tumour arising from mesenchymal tissue mainly adipose tissue. Other mesenchymal tissue can combine with it to form angiolipoma, leiomylipoma, angiomyolipoma, fibrolipoma, neurolipoma, osteolipoma and chondrolipoma [3]. Ultrasonography, computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and fine needle aspiration cytology (FNA) are of definite help in making preoperative diagnosis of parotid lipoma [4]. Once a definite diagnosis of parotid lipoma is available, this can be kept under wait and watch until the patient demands its surgical removal because of cosmetic reason. The operation can be planned avoiding the injury to facial nerve and its branches [5]. We report a case of sialolipoma in the left parotid of a 52 year old female woman because of relative rarity who was treated with limited excision.