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Lafont M, Whyte A et al. Int J Oral Maxillofac Surg 2015; 44: 834–839

Frey syndrome, or when described more informatively as gustatory sweating, occurs when postganglionic parasympathetic fibres of the auriculo-temporal nerve supplying the parotid gland are sectioned and then regenerate. Gustatory sweating can occur following parotidectomy. The main symptom is sweating over the pre-auricular region, and or the temporal region, after eating. This symptom can be accompanied by redness, heat or pain. The length of time to presentation after surgery can vary from a few days to possibly years. In this retrospective study, the investigators interrogated the clinical notes of 334 patients who underwent a parotidectomy, from 2002 to 2012. Only 14.4% of patients were lost from the study. Survival analysis (Kaplan-Meier) was used to analyse the data. Counterintuitively those who received treatment for malignant parotid gland tumours appeared to be less likely to develop gustatory sweating than those patients with benign tumours. In this study, almost one third of patients developed gustatory sweating, but of note, it did not occur until some 4 years after parotidectomy.