Juvenile Idiopathic Recurrent Parotitis (JIRP) treated with short course steroids, a case series study and one decade follow up for potential autoimmune disorder

Abstract

Background: Juvenile idiopathic recurrent parotitis (JIRP) in children is a condition characterized with recurrent episodes of idiopathic parotid gland inflammation. Since there are no definitive guidelines for diagnosis and management of this condition, we determined to present a consecutive case series of patients with more than one decade follow up and their dramatic response to short course treatment by prednisolone. Methods: We conducted this study twenty years ago, however we retrospectively reviewed medical charts of children who were diagnosed with JIRP, from 1 January 2002 to 29 February 2023. We performed usual serological tests to exclude some possible background. We administered short course prednisolone on first day of episode as divided dosage (0.5 mg /kg). Results: In this case series 7 patients (70%) were male, median age of onset was 5 years, duration of episodes 5 days, and the course of disease were 3.8 years. The average follow up of patients was near 10 years. In comparison with their natural course of disease all patients showed a dramatic response to treatment on the first day of administration of prednisolone (P Value 0.005).During ten years follow up there was not any additional accompanying autoimmune disorder. Conclusion: Short course prednisolone on first day of each episodes and its dramatic and meaningful response in JIRP, introduce effective, fast, somehow safe, and inexpensive regimen of therapy in these patients.