Objective: This study is done to analyse the cytomorphological features of different head and neck lesions, classify them and to evaluate diagnostic accuracy and limitation of FNA of head and neck lesions with cyto-histological correlation.

Material and Methods: The material consists of 250 cases of palpable lesions of head and neck region. Fine needle aspiration smears were taken and stained with Giemsa, PAP and H&E stains. FNAC results were analysed according to anatomical location and all the lesions were classified into inflammatory and neoplastic pathology. The FNA diagnosis was correlated with available subsequent histopathological diagnosis.

Results: Among 250 cases, most of the lesions were from lymph nodes (40.8%) and thyroid (36%). Out of 250 FNAs of head and neck lesions, histopathological evaluation was done in 64 cases (25.6%). The sensitivity of FNAC in this study was found 88% and specificity was 94.8%. The overall diagnostic accuracy found to be 92.1% with positive and negative predictive values of 91.6%, 92.5% respectively.

Conclusion: Our study found that FNAC is a simple, quick, inexpensive, and minimally invasive technique to diagnose different types of head and neck swellings. It could differentiate the infective process from neoplastic one and avoids unnecessary surgeries.

1. Tilak V, Dhaded AV, Jain R. Fine needle aspiration cytology of head and neck masses. Indian J Pathol Microbiol. 2002; 45(1): 23-    
2. Schwarz R, Chan NH, MacFarlane JK. Fine needle aspiration cytology in the evaluation of Head and Neck masses. The  American Journal of Surgery 1990; 159: 482-85.
3. Martyn ZS, Grainger JM, Gleeson MJ, Wengraf CL. Fine needle    aspiration of neck lumps in district hospital. Clinical   otolaryngology 1986; 11: 131-35.
4. Young JEM, Archibald SD, Shier KJ. Needle Aspiration Cytologic Biopsy in Head and Neck Masess 1981; 142: 484-89.
5. Jain M, Majumdar DD, Agarwal K, Bais AS, Chouhury M. FNAC as a diagnostic tool in pediatric head and neck lesions. Indian Pediatr 1999; 36: 921-23.
6. Dejmek A, Lindholm K. Fine needle aspiration biopsy of cystic lesions of the head and neck excluding thyroid. Acta Cytologica        1990; 34 (3):443-447.
7. Frable WJ, Frable MA. Thin needle aspiration biopsy-The diagnosis of head and neck tumours revisited. Cancer  1979; 43: 1541-48.
8. Turbat- Herrera EA, Knowles K. Cytology: screening or diagnostic tool? pathol. 1999; 29 (12): 1356-66.
9. Mustafa F, Sujata Tripathi. Cytology of head and neck lesion in a tertiary health care centre in Saurashtra with corrobo-ration by histopathology. International J of innovative research and development . 2013; 2(6): 566-573.
10. Amatya BB, Joshi AR, Singh SK et. al. A study of fine needle aspiration cytology of head and neck masses and their corroboration by histopathology. Post graduate medical journal of national academy of medical sciences. 2009; 6 (2): 52-60
11. Gunvanti B Rathod, Pragnesh Parmar . Fine needle aspiration cytology of swellings of head and neck region. Indian Journal of Medical Sciences. 2012; 66(3): 49-54.
12. Richa Sharma, D.R.Mathur. Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) of Palpable lesions of head and neck region.IJCRR 2012; 4(22):74-82.
13. Umesh jindal, K D Singh , A Baghla, A Kochhar. Spectrum of head and neck swellings in the rural population of india based on fine needle aspiration findings. The Internet Journal of Head and Neck Surgery. 2012; 5(2): 1-8.
14. Fernandes H , D’Souza C R S, Thejaswini B N . The role of fine needle aspiration cytology in palpable head and neck masses. Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research 2009; 3(5): 1719-25. 
15. G. Swamy, A Singh, JM Ahuja, N. Satyanarayana. Accuracy of fine needle aspiration cytology in the diagnosis of palpable head      and neck masses in a tertiary health care centre. Journal of college of medical sciences – Nepal . 2010; 6(4): 19-25.
16. H. Jasani, Hetal V Vaishnan, Parul N Vekaria, Dipmala Patel, Yash Shah, Nisarg Savjiani, Deval Patel, Dhairya Lakhani. Retrospective study of fine needle aspiration cytology of head and neck lesions in tertiary care hospital. International Journal Of Biomedical And Advance Research .2013; 4(4) : 253-57.
17. Orell SR, Sterrett GF, Whitaker D. Fine needle aspiration cytology 4^th New Delhi: Elsevier Health Sciences; 2005.
18. Mohammed Ayub Musani, Faheem A. Khan, Shoukat Malik,Yousuf Khambaty. Fine needle aspiration cytology-sensitivity and specificity in thyroid lesions. J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad 2011; 23 (1): 34-36.
19. Ashcraft MW, Van Herle AJ. Management of thyroid nodules II: scanning techniques thyroid suppressive therapy and fine needle aspiration. Head Neck Surg 1981; 3: 297–322.
20. Guidelines of the Papnicoloau Society of Cytopathology for the examination of fine needle aspiration specimens from thyroid nodules. Mod Pathol 1996; 9 (6):710–15.
21. Caruso D, Mazzaferri EL. Fine needle aspiration biopsy in the management of thyroid nodules. Endocrinologist 1991;1: 194–202.
22. Grace C. H. Yang, Doreen Liebeskind, Albert V. Messina. Ultrasound- Guided Fine- Needle Aspiration of thyroid assessed by ultrafast Papanicolaou stain: Data from 1135 Biopsies with a Two- Six year follow up. Thyroid 2001; 11(6): 581-589.
23. Gagneten CB, Roccataglinta G, Lowenstein A. The role of fine needle aspiration cytology in the evaluation of the clinically solitary thyroid nodule. Acta Cytol 1987; 31: 595-598.

Dr Radhika Rai

Resident (DNB), JLN Bhilai

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Mob No.- 98260-47227