Parotid Irrigation and Cevimeline Gargle for Treatment of Xerostomia in Sjögren’s Syndrome

Excerpt

To the Editor:

Xerostomia may be associated with a wide range of diseases including autoimmune diseases such as Sjögren’s syndrome (SS)¹. Cholinergic agents such as pilocarpine and cevimeline have been recently applied to relieve xerostomia in patients with SS. However, adverse effects such as abdominal pain, nausea, diarrhea, and ocular symptoms were major shortcomings in the use of the drugs^2,3.

Corticosteroid irrigation of the affected salivary glands has been successfully applied to patients with SS⁴. Further, a preliminary study showed that cevimeline gargle was effective in treating some patients with severe SS who were refractory to treatment with corticosteroid irrigation⁵...