Lekshmi V.1, Mini B.2
BACKGROUND
Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) is commonly used as a safe and minimally
invasive diagnostic test in benign salivary gland lesions. Nevertheless, the capacity
of aspiration cytology in diagnosing benign lesions in the salivary gland is still
disputed because accurate tumour typing is dependent on the quality and yield of
the aspirate, as well as the competence of the cytopathologist. We aim to assess
the precision of fine needle aspirate in the pre-operative diagnosis of benign
salivary gland lesions and compare it with the histopathological findings.
METHODS
This is a longitudinal study conducted among 45 patients with preoperative
cytological diagnosis of benign salivary gland lesions, who were followed-up till
surgery with subsequent histopathological examination in Government Medical
College, Thrissur, from 1st January 2013 to 30th June 2015.
RESULTS
Among the benign neoplasms, 29 out of 30 cases of pleomorphic adenoma were
confirmed on histopathology and one was basal cell adenoma. Out of nine cases
of Warthin’s tumour, only seven were confirmed by histopathology. Of the
remaining two, one was found to be salivary duct carcinoma showing the typical
comedo necrosis and the other was found to be low grade mucoepidermoid
carcinoma. So, these two cases were found to be false negative. The statistical
analysis showed an overall diagnostic accuracy of 95.5 % for benign salivary gland
lesions.
CONCLUSIONS
FNAC is a minimally invasive technique useful in salivary gland lesions. In nonneoplastic
lesions surgery can be avoided and in neoplasms appropriate surgery
can be planned. An accurate cytological diagnosis is often possible but may
sometimes require the expertise of the cytopathology and use of ancillary
techniques.
