Juvenile recurrent parotitis: a paediatric rheumatology perspective

Objective The purpose of this study was to evaluate the demographic characteristics, clinical and laboratory findings, imaging methods and treatment of juvenile recurrent parotitis (JRP) patients. Method This observational medical record study was conducted in patients, aged 1 to18 years, were diagnosed with JRP. Results Of the 46 patients with JRP included, 27 (58.7%) were male. The median age at onset was 4 years, and the median age at diagnosis was 6.5 years. Thirty-seven (80.4%) of JRP patients were idiopathic. The underlying causes were as follow: inborn errors of immunity (n = 3, 6.5%), rheumatologic (n = 2, 4.3%), infectious diseases (n = 2, 4.3%), congenital anomaly (n = 431, 2.2%), and one patient (2.2%) had both rheumatologic disease and inborn errors of immunity. Two patients (4.3%) were diagnosed with Sjögren syndrome, and one patient (2.2%) was diagnosed with IgG4-related disease. Conclusion Although most JRP is idiopathic, some patients may have infectious, structural, immunologic or autoimmune abnormalities.