Acute parotiditis after cesarean section; case report

The enlargement of the parotid gland develops in inflammatory or stenotic conditions but after Cesarean section the symptomatology is unusual. A 38 year old patient with no obstetrical history referred to our clinic for pregnancy, which followed our national program of prenatal care. The outcome of the pregnancy was favorable for both mother and fetus. During labor the fetus developed bradycardia and the patient delivered by Cesarean section a 3400 g baby-boy with 8 Apgar Score; the anesthesia was spinal.

18 hours after delivery the patient presented mild respiratory distress. The symptomatology was caused by the enlargement of the parotid gland. The treatment was supportive and the remission occurred 10 hours after the onset. The initial discussion that raised this case was caused by the viral, infection and stenotic cause of the parotiditis. All these reasons had no medical argument. It was also debated about the anesthesia but, until now, the medical literature didn’t report any case of association between parotiditis and spinal anesthesia. It is also impossible to correlate the parotiditis with IVF procedure.

As a conclusion, this case is unique because it represents the parotiditis without unknown case that appeared after Cesarean section and spinal anesthesia in a healthy woman.