An interventional study of Active wound drainage (Standard of Care) and Omission of active wound drain in Parotid Neoplasms, Post-operative Complications and Seroma as Procedural Complication, sponsored by Uppsala University Hospital. Recruiting at 3 sites in Sweden. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-06-04.
Sponsored by Uppsala University Hospital · Not applicable, Interventional, and Health services research
The purpose of this study The purpose of this study is to find out if it is safe to perform surgery on the parotid gland (the large salivary gland in front of the ear) without using a wound drain. A wound drain is a small plastic tube used to remove excess fluid from the surgical site after the operation. Currently, using a drain is the standard practice in Sweden, which often means patients must stay in hospital overnight. Researchers want to see if skipping the drain is just as safe and if it could allow more patients to return home on the same day as their surgery.
What happens during the study
Participants in this study will be randomly assigned to one of two groups during their surgery:
Group 1: Will receive the standard treatment with a wound drain.
Group 2: Will have the surgery performed without a wound drain.
Apart from the use of a drain, all participants will receive the same surgical care. After the operation, researchers will monitor the healing process. Participants will be asked to fill out questionnaires about their health and any symptoms at one week and six months after their surgery.
The goal of the study The main goal is to compare the safety of the two methods. Researchers will look at whether there is any difference in the number of complications, such as fluid build-up (seroma), bleeding, or infections, between those who had a drain and those who did not. The study also aims to evaluate if avoiding a drain improves the patient's quality of life and if it is a more cost-effective approach for the healthcare system.
27 studies on the registry are indexed under Parotid Neoplasms; 7 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 600 is above the median of 55 across 18 interventional studies indexed under Parotid Neoplasms.
Browse Parotid Neoplasms studies →Uppsala University Hospital is the lead sponsor of 73 studies on the registry; 19 are open to participants now.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.
Exclusion Criteria:
Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
The anaesthetists’ scale of health before surgery: I is healthy, II has a mild illness that is under control, III a severe one, IV a severe illness that is a constant threat to life. V and VI are used for the critically ill and for organ donors.
Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.
Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.
Blood cells that help blood clot. Too few raises the risk of bleeding and bruising. A usual adult range is about 150–400 × 10⁹/L (150,000–400,000 per µL); each lab has its own reference range.
Blood tests of how long blood takes to clot. The INR is the prothrombin time (PT) put on a common scale; about 1 is usual for someone not taking a blood thinner.
Criteria often make an exception for people on a blood thinner such as warfarin, whose INR is raised on purpose.
The protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen. A low level is anaemia, which can cause tiredness and breathlessness. Measured in g/dL or g/L (9 g/dL is 90 g/L).
ASA physical status
The anaesthetists’ scale of health before surgery: I is healthy, II has a mild illness that is under control, III a severe one, IV a severe illness that is a constant threat to life. V and VI are used for the critically ill and for organ donors.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Cancer (malignancy)
Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.
Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Platelets
Blood cells that help blood clot. Too few raises the risk of bleeding and bruising. A usual adult range is about 150–400 × 10⁹/L (150,000–400,000 per µL); each lab has its own reference range.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
INR, PT and aPTT (clotting tests)
Blood tests of how long blood takes to clot. The INR is the prothrombin time (PT) put on a common scale; about 1 is usual for someone not taking a blood thinner.
Criteria often make an exception for people on a blood thinner such as warfarin, whose INR is raised on purpose.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Hemoglobin (Hb)
The protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen. A low level is anaemia, which can cause tiredness and breathlessness. Measured in g/dL or g/L (9 g/dL is 90 g/L).
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Participants in this group will undergo partial or superficial parotidectomy without the placement of a postoperative active wound drain. The surgical site is closed according to the standard technique, but the suction drain is omitted.
Procedure: Omission of active wound drain
Participants in this group will undergo partial or superficial parotidectomy with the placement of a postoperative active wound drain, according to current standard clinical routine in Sweden.
Procedure: Active wound drainage (Standard of Care)
An active suction drain is placed in the surgical bed before wound closure, which is the current established clinical practice for parotidectomy in Sweden.
The surgical procedure is performed without the insertion of an active suction drain. All other aspects of the surgical care and postoperative monitoring follow standard protocols.
Cumulative incidence of early postoperative complications requiring intervention
The primary outcome is the number of participants experiencing at least one early complication, defined as a salivary fistula, haematoma, seroma/sialocele, or surgical site infection that requires invasive or medical treatment (e.g., aspiration, re-operation, or antibiotics).
Time frame: From the day of surgery up to 7 weeks postoperatively.
Requirement for inpatient hospital care after the day of surgery.
Evaluation of the number of participants requiring unplanned hospital admission or prolonged stay related to the surgical procedure.
Time frame: From the first postoperative day up to 6 months
Postoperative facial nerve function.
Assessment of facial nerve function using the Sunnybrook Facial Grading System (SFGS). The SFGS is a clinical evaluation scale that ranges from 0 to 100. A score of 0 indicates complete facial paralysis, while a score of 100 represents normal facial function. Higher scores indicate a better outcome (better facial nerve function).
Time frame: Baseline (preoperative), at discharge, at 7 weeks, and at 6 months
Incidence of Frey's syndrome
Subjective and objective assessment of gustatory sweating (Frey's syndrome).
Time frame: 6 months postoperatively.
Health-related quality of life (EQ-5D-5L)
Evaluated using the EQ-5D-5L descriptive system, which comprises 5 dimensions (mobility, self-care, usual activities, pain/discomfort, anxiety/depression). Each dimension is scored from 1 (no problems) to 5 (extreme problems). The digits are combined into a 5-digit health state profile, which is then converted into a single index value. Index values range from less than 0 (where 0 is a state equivalent to death and negative values are states worse than death) to 1.0 (perfect health). Higher scores indicate a better quality of life outcome.
Time frame: 7 weeks, and 6 months postoperatively
Postoperative length of stay
Total number of days spent in hospital following the surgical procedure.
Time frame: Through initial hospital discharge, an average of 1.5 days, assessed up to 7 weeks.
Symptom-specific outcomes (SwPOI-8)
Measured using the Swedish Parotidectomy Outcome Inventory 8 (SwPOI-8), a disease-specific instrument assessing subjective symptoms after parotid surgery (e.g., pain, sensory disturbances, scarring, facial palsy, sweating, dry mouth). Each of the 8 items is scored on a Likert scale from 0 to 3, with a total score ranging from 0 to 24. Higher scores indicate a greater symptom burden and a worse outcome.
Time frame: 7 weeks and 6 months postoperatively
Plan to share: No — Individual participant data will not be shared publicly due to current Swedish legislation and the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which protect the privacy of study participants. Sharing of pseudonymised individual-level data would require specific legal review and institutional agreements to ensure continued data protection
No publications or documents are linked to this record.
Started May 2026 (actual). Primary completion is estimated for Dec 2030, 55 months after the start.
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