Fine needle aspiration cytology: accurate and reliable tool for primary diagnosis of salivary gland lesions.

ABSTRACT

Background: Management of salivary gland lesions is greatly influenced by preoperative or intraoperative diagnosis of malignancy. Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) is used as a primary diagnostic tool since long. Objective: The objective of study was to evaluate usefulness and diagnostic accuracy of FNAC in primary diagnosis of salivary gland lesions. Methods: Study includes 75 cases suspected of salivary gland lesions evaluated by FNAC from January 2010 to August 2012. Whenever possible follow up histopathology also studied. Results: Out of total of 75 cases of salivary gland lesions 30 cases (40%) were nonneoplastic, 30 cases (40%) were benign and 15 cases (20 %) were malignant. FNAC showed satisfactory sensitivity and specificity with about 91% diagnostic accuracy for benign lesions and for malignant lesions. Conclusions: Study concludes that FNAC has proven to be simple, easy, minimally invasive method with satisfactory accuracy for initial diagnosis of Salivary gland lesions especially benign and malignant neoplasms. It almost accurately type benign tumors like pleomorphic adenoma and showed fair accuracy and reliability. FNAC is vital for management primarily to exclude need of surgery as nonneoplastic lesions are managed conservatively and planning preoperative chemoradiation like in cases of Mucoepidermoid carcinoma arising in odd locations like palate.