Parotitis

BY JOHN M. KEATING, M.D.

The term parotitis is applied to a condition of painful enlargement of one or both parotid glands, inflammatory in nature, acute in its course, and usually subsiding by resolution, but sometimes ending in suppuration. The different methods of termination, together with certain etiological distinctions, form the basis of a division of the affection into two sub-classes—namely, 1, idiopathic parotitis; and 2, symptomatic or metastatic parotitis. These demand separate consideration.