My husband had a partial hemiglossectomy with neck dissection performed last week. Everything seems to be healing well so far, with the exception of an open area (2cm) in the mid throat that continually drains saliva. It is unreal how much drainage there is and it is not slowing down. They have been packing it and dressing the area for almost a week and there is no lessening of the volume of drainage. They say this is the course to take and it may take time. Time could be a week to six months, I don't know. They won't estimate a time frame. Has anyone else dealt with this? Any idea of what to expect would be greatly appreciated.

Becki, welcome to OCF. Sorry to hear your husband has had to undergo such an invasive surgery. Sorry, Im not familiar with the saliva drainage issue. I can only give a guess that it would be similar to how other drains are after surgeries and say up to 2 weeks. Adding more protein to his diet would help speed the healing. Maybe that would help.

Good luck!

Thanks for the suggestion!

I'm a little confused - drainage from where? His incision?

Part of the incision site is still open. Apparently there is injury to a salivary gland and the drainage from that is keeping the incision open at the mid-line of the throat.

Normally protocol is to put in a drain, then they let it drain fully for a few days and eventually it closes over and heals. I had two post op. it's sterile and a pressure drain so it actually sucks the fluid out gently and prevents infection... I would ask why he doesn't have one.