Role of ranulas in early diagnosis of Sjögren’s syndrome: A case report

BACKGROUND: Although the presentations of Sjögren’s syndrome (SS) are variable, ranging from mild dryness to wider systemic involvement, ranulas as early clinical signs were scarcely reported. Here, we present an adult patient with SS, who developed a unilateral simple ranula and was diagnosed primary SS 3 years later. We also provide a review of cases of SS and ranulas from 1980 to 2020. CASE SUMMARY: A 22-year-old girl was found to have a left painless floor-of-mouth lesion 3 years ago, without obvious trauma or inducement. The diagnosis of a unilateral (left) simple ranula was made, and the ranula was surgically treated. Within 3 years after the ranula surgery, she developed acute lymphadenectasis in unilateral parotid twice without inducement, and ultrasonic examination revealed diffuse lesions in bilateral parotids and submandibular glands, which strongly suggested SS. Serologic tests and the unstimulated whole saliva flow rate confirmed the SS diagnosis. CONCLUSION: Our study underlines that ranulas are early clinical signs of SS. As early diagnosis and early intervention of SS are important to obtain better outcomes, our findings underline the need for histopathological test after sublingual adenectomy and imaging detection of exocrine glands for the patients with ranulas.