Diagnostic utility of fine needle aspiration cytology in the diagnosis of head and neck lesions with special emphasis on its limitations

Abstract

Objective: To determine the efficacy of fine needle aspiration cytology in the diagnosis of head and neck lesions with special emphasis on the limitations.Methods: This was a retrospective, cross sectional analytical study. Fine needle aspiration cytology was performed on 250 cases presenting with head and neck lesions. The smears were categorized into four categories as inflammatory/reactive, benign, indeterminate and malignant. Results of these were correlated with histopathology in 50 cases in which surgery was performed.Results: Out of 250 cases 125 cases (50%) were from the thyroid, 84 (33.6%) were from the lymph node, 15 (6%) were from the salivary glands and 26 (10.4%) belonged to the miscellaneous group. The overall sensitivity , specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and accuracy were 50%, 100%, 100%, 88.63% and 89.74% respectively.Conclusion: FNAC is simple, safe and cost effective procedure in delineating the heterogeneous lesions occurring in the head and neck region with certain limitations.