ABSTRACT
Background: A perplexing diagnostic and therapeutic dilemma is often presented by masses involving glandular and nodal structures of head and neck - lymph nodes, thyroid gland and salivary glands. Fine needle aspiration of such masses is a rapid, direct and safe adjunctive surgical procedure for obtaining material for cytologic analysis. Objectives: To study the diagnostic efficacy of FNAC in the head and neck lesions and correlate it with histopathology. Material & Methods: It is a study of 289 cases of head and neck area referred to the Department of Pathology, Govt. Medical College Patiala. The cytological diagnosis was compared with histopathology. The false positive/negative data was analysed to calculate the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and overall diagnostic accuracy of the study. Results: The study included 289 cases between 1-70 years in which 59.86% were females and 40.13% were males. Maximum cases were in the age group of 21-30 years. Maximum numbers of cases were from lymph nodes, 139 (48.09%). The overall accuracy was 96.53% with sensitivity of 91.54% and specificity of 98.16%. Positive and negative predictive values were 94.20% and 97.27% respectively. Conclusion: FNAC is an excellent first line method for investigating the nature of palpable lesions in the head and neck region. It can obviate the need for surgery if the lesion is non-neoplastic.