Managing children with sialorrhoea (drooling): Experience from the first 301 children in our saliva control clinic.

OBJECTIVES: Sialorrhoea (drooling) is defined as the involuntary escape of saliva from the mouth. It is considered normal in young children but may cause social problems in older children. Sialorrhoea is frequently seen in children with cerebral palsy, with rates between 10% and 58% and in other neurodevelopmental diseases. Management of these children can be challenging and often requires an individual and stepwise approach. This is a large case series of children managed at the saliva control clinic in Glasgow, Scotland.

METHODS: A chart review of all children attending the saliva control clinic between 2006 and June 2012 was performed. This was to ensure that all children would have long term follow up (3 years minimum). Drooling severity was assessed on the child's first attendance at clinic, and at review following a treatment option, using the Teacher Drooling Scale (TDS).

RESULTS: The total number of children attending this clinic was 301, of which 274 had adequate records for inclusion in the study. 176 (64%) were male. The mean age was 7.3 (median 5) years. In terms of development 35 (13%) of children were developing normally and 50 (18%) had general developmental delay. There were 105 (38%) children with cerebral palsy. The final management of sialorrhoea in these children was simple reassurance and advice for 34 (12%), speech and language therapy for 62 (23%) anticholinergics in 90 patients (33%), botox for 30 (11%) and surgery for 71 (26%) children. The rate of non-tolerance of anticholinergics is 30%; 90 of the 298 children tried on anticholinergics had side effects leading to the treatment being stopped. The average teachers drooling score was 4.24 before clinic and 1.59 after clinic. Satisfactory results were achieved in 215 (78%) of children.

CONCLUSION: Our data illustrates that effective patient management requires all treatment options to be available, including speech therapy, medications, botulinum toxin and surgery. This is one of the larger case series of children attending a saliva control clinic.