Introduction
The late 1990s were active in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery (ORL-HNS) at the Geneva University Hospital. Dr. Francis Marchal was involved in exploring a completely new field by developing instruments for sialendoscopy and Dr. Pavel Dulguerov had embarked on a Privat Docent thesis on parotidectomy complications. The publications related to these lines of work illustrated that, around the turn of the century, “Salivary Gland Diseases and Disorders” was bound to be an important new field deserving its own meetings and organizations. An example of the growing interest in the field is that half of the books specifically targeting salivary glands or saliva were published after 2000 ( Fig. 58.1 ).
Salivary Gland Congresses
In this context, the Geneva University Department of ORL-HNS decided to organize the First International Congress on Salivary Gland Diseases to be held early in 2002, in Geneva. The meeting had more than 300 attendees, seven plenary sessions, four special lectures, two round tables, 16 free paper sessions with 102 oral communications, and 46 posters.
The idea from the beginning was not only to target surgeons, but to involve any medical or basic science specialty that dealt with saliva or salivary gland problems. Therefore, sessions on physiopathology of saliva, immunology, xerostomia, parotid tumors and cancers, as well as on sialolithiasis and sialendoscopy were included ( Fig. 58.2 ). The meeting continued with the First Sialendoscopy Course organized by Dr. Francis Marchal.
The Second Congress was organized by Dr. Jonas Johnson and Dr. Eugene Myers in Pittsburgh in 2007. The Third Congress was again in Geneva in 2012.
Whereas it was the aim at the outset to organize an International Congress every 5 years, due to logistic and organizational difficulties, the fourth meeting, in 2017, took a somewhat different format, a smaller but truly multidisciplinary 2-day program within the framework of the European Confederation of Otorhinolaryngological Societies (CEORL) meeting. During the General Assembly, in an effort to gather more interested people, to welcome existing salivary gland societies, such as the Japanese and Chinese Salivary Gland Societies, and to underline the multidisciplinary and international aspirations of the society, the European Salivary Gland Society (ESGS) was rebaptized into a “Multidisciplinary Salivary Gland Society” (MSGS). It was also decided that “The Fifth International Congress on Salivary Gland Diseases”, and thus the “First MSGS International Congress on Salivary Gland Diseases” should be held in Philadelphia, USA, in October 2019.
Mission of the European Salivary Gland Society
The ESGS is really the creation of Dr. Francis Marchal. The ESGS ( www.esgs.eu ) was incorporated in Geneva in 2006 and held its founding board meeting during the EUFOS (European Federation of Otorhinolaryngological Societies) and The European ORL-HNS Academy Congress in Vienna, in July 2007. The purposes of the ESGS that were coined at the outset remain very relevant and these core aspirations are summarized in Box 58.1 .
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Bring together experts or groups of experts – clinicians and researchers from all interested disciplines who have an interest in basic and clinical sciences, as well as diagnostic or therapeutic procedures related to the salivary glands
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Exchange and disseminate knowledge and information about basic and clinical science pertinent to saliva, salivary glands, and related disorders
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Stimulate basic and clinical research relating to saliva, salivary glands, and their disorders
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Develop and promote new technologies to investigate and treat salivary gland diseases
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Encourage education, development of high quality training programs, and exchange visits between members
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Promote international collaborative studies, prospective databases, and their financing through research grants
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Support and cooperate with scientific and educational organizations in related fields
Since its creation, the first President, Secretary General, and Treasurer (2007–2012) were, respectively, Dr. Patrick Bradley (ENT-HNS Nottingham, UK), Dr. Francis Marchal (ENT-HNS Geneva, Switzerland), and Dr. Pavel Dulguerov (ENT-HNS Geneva, Switzerland). Subsequently, following a General Assembly meeting during the International Congress on Salivary Gland Diseases, a second President was found in the person of Dr. Cyrille Chossegros (OMFS, Marseille, France), and the Secretary and Treasurer were asked to continue their tasks (2012–2017). In 2017, Dr. Francis Marchal became the third President, Dr. Vincent Vander Poorten the Secretary General, and Dr. Davide Lombardi the Treasurer. Dr. Eugene Myers (Pittsburgh, USA) was granted the President’s Medal of Honour in Barcelona in 2017, in recognition of unremitting support of the Society from its early beginning.
Within ESGS, also the iSIAL (International Society for Sialendoscopy) was created as a subsection, gathering all interested colleagues in the field of sialendoscopy.
Achievements of the European Salivary Gland Society
Meetings
The ESGS has been sponsoring and co-organizing the various International Salivary Congresses discussed above, as well as various educational activities such as the Geneva Sialendoscopy Courses (Beginners and Advanced level – organized by Dr. Francis Marchal), which are reaching their 30th edition, in September 2018.
Members of ESGS have also been contributing as faculty for a long time to the renowned Köln Salivary Gland Surgery Course and the famous yearly Erlangen Salivary Gland Surgery and Sialendoscopy courses. ESGS members have been frequently involved in the always well-attended Round Tables during hosting society meetings by IFOS (Sao Paolo, Brazil 2009; Seoul, South Korea 2013; Paris, France 2017); Asia Oceania ORL HNS Society (Auckland, New Zealand 2011); the Consensus Conference on Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma and High Grade Neoplasms (Brescia, Italy 2014); CEORL (Vienna, Austria 2007; Mannheim, Germany 2009; Barcelona, Spain 2011; Nice, France 2013; Prague, Czech Republic 2015; Barcelona, Spain 2017); IFHNOS (Prague, Czech Republic 2006; Seoul, South Korea 2010; New York, USA 2014; Bangalore, India 2017; Buenos Aires, Argentina 2018); American Academy of ORL-HNS, and the American Head and Neck Society International Meetings (San Francisco, USA, 2008; Toronto, Canada, 2012; Seattle, USA 2016).
Upcoming participations during meetings of hosting societies are a multidisciplinary ESGS 2-day program, encompassing all areas of salivary diseases, integrated in the CEORL meeting in Brussels, Belgium in 2019, participation of MSGS in the IFHNOS World Tour, Leuven, Belgium 2019, and in IFOS, Vancouver, Canada 2021. An important upcoming milestone event is the “Fifth International Congress on Salivary Gland Diseases”, which will be the “First MSGS International Congress on Salivary Gland Diseases” in Philadelphia, USA, October 24–25, 2019. (Local organizing Committee: Christopher Rassekh, David Cognetti, and Robert Witt).
Scientific Contributions: Peer Reviewed Publications
ESGS activities have been in the field of “original research” in sialendoscopy, surgical technique and avoidance of complications, and salivary gland neoplasms and cancer treatment. Another field of activity of ESGS members, often in collaboration with the IHNSG, is the writing of up-to-date systematic and expert opinion review papers, mainly on sialolithiasis and sialendoscopy, surgical technique, histopathology and molecular biology, and clinical management of salivary gland neoplastic disease. Also Editorials and Letters to the Editor with ESGS signature have been produced.
An important activity has been the publication of frequently cited position papers. ESGS published the LSD (Lithiasis, Stenosis, Dilatation) Classification for Salivary Obstructive Disease, as well as an ESGS classification of parotidectomy types and extent, following a consensus discussion during the Third Congress, in Geneva.
Several multiauthored reference books have been produced, initiated with collaboration of ESGS members, such as Salivary Gland Disorders (Editors: E. Myers/R. Ferris; Springer Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg 2007); Salivary Gland Disorders and Diseases: Diagnosis and Management (Editors: P. Bradley/O. Guntinas-Lichius; Georg Thieme Verlag, Stuttgart 2011); Sialendoscopy: The Hands-On Book (Editor: F. Marchal; ESTC Meythet 2015); and Advances in Oto-Rhino-Laryngology , Vol. 78 Salivary Gland Neoplasms (Editors: P. Bradley/D.W. Eisele; Karger, Basel 2016).
Future Developments: a Roadmap for MSGS
ESGS is a successful yet young society that needs to grow, mature, and evolve in its structure. The decision to go globally as “MSGS”, and increasing the accent on multidisciplinarity, aims at increased “cross-fertilization” between the disciplines, to advance the field of salivary gland diseases and saliva as efficiently as possible.
Membership and Finances
At the moment MSGS membership is 80€ for professionals and 30€ for residents in training. A balance between increased membership and sufficient financial support to run the society is hard to strike. One reason is the number of medical/scientific societies to which most ESGS current and potential members belong. To be successful as a society, it should be clear for interested professionals what is the “expected output” (i.e., what do I get in return for my membership fee?). Another suggested direction is to position MSGS as an umbrella society, where membership in another society (European HNS, American HNS, European OMFS, etc.) would automatically link to membership in MSGS, with a small fee passed to MSGS. Other obvious options include to link the finances of courses around MSGS meetings to MSGS financing, contracts with the industry, patient support groups (e.g., Sjögren support group), advertising on the website, etc.
Realization of the Statutes and Goals
Until now, “bringing together experts in salivary glands diseases” has only been possible during meetings. While these have had a respectable following with ORL or maxillo-facial clinicians, it has been difficult to involve other specialties and basic scientists. While specific invitations of renowned, for example, physiologists or rheumatologists have been extremely well received, Salivary Gland Congresses have yet to become meetings on saliva or Sjögren disease. Nevertheless, meetings will go on and the “First MSGS International Congress on Salivary Gland Diseases” might become another milestone gathering.
“Exchanging and disseminating knowledge” is essential and requires a well-functioning website, which is, at the moment, a “work-in-progress” ( www.msgs.international ). Besides important resource for databases and collaborative studies, the website should provide patient-related reliable and updated information.
The impressive list of publications of ESGS members could be perceived as the fulfillment of the “stimulate basic and clinical research” goal. Most can be viewed as an achievement of individual members, however. Until now, few prospective and collaborative studies have been a direct result of the implication of the society itself.
Working groups on specific salivary gland problems (tumors, pleomorphic adenoma, cancer, sialendoscopy, Sjögren, etc.) have been discussed at numerous ESGS board meetings but, possibly besides sialendoscopy, have yet to materialize. Multicentric collaborations are possibly the first step.
In order to promote interdisciplinary and international collaboration, databases have been discussed in ESGS. A lot of work has been done on a database for sialadenitis and sialendoscopy (Sialendobase within iSIAL) and a database on tumors could be another interesting project for MSGS.
