Recurrent parotitis in children.

Recurrent parotitis in children (RPC), also known as juvenile recurrent parotitis, is a salivary gland inflammatory disease seen in the young. Intermittent episodes of parotid swellings, over a period of years, usually associated with a sialographic pattern of sialectasis, serve to differentiate RPC from other inflammatory diseases, such as mumps (epidemic parotitis). The etiology of RPC remains unknown, although such causative factors as heredity, immunology, infection, allergy and congenital duct malformation have all been considered. The manifestations of this unusual disease entity, illustrated by a case report, are the subject of this paper.