Abstract: Objective To improve the understanding and early diagnostic ability for parotid gland tuberculosis.  Methods The clinical characteristics based on the clinical data of a 57-year-old female patient confirmed by pathologic histology in Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital in 2012 and the literature of 34 cases with parotid gland tuberculosis from domestic and “PubMed” database from 2005 to 2013 were retrospectively analyzed. Results Among 35 parotid gland tuberculosis cases. There were 22 males and 13 females. The left and right parotid gland tuberculosis were 16 cases respectively, and the bilateral were 3 cases. The main symptoms were progressive，painless swelling of parotid gland. In additional, fever, dental caries, toothache, difficulty in opening mouth was seldom(2/35) and few patients was suffered from tuberculous symptoms like as night sweat, fatigue, weight loss and anorexia(34/35). Fine needle aspiration cytology was the great help in diagnosis. There were 18 cases performed by fine needle aspiration cytology and 10 cases with the cytological results. Twenty-seven cases got satisfactory efficacy due to regular treatment and 1 case didn’t due to irregular treatment.  Conclusion Parotid gland tuberculosis can get satisfactory efficacy with regular treatment. It should be kept in mind while dealing with parotid swellings patients.

Key words: Tuberculosis, parotid/drug therapy, Treatment outcome