title: Fine needle aspiration cytology of swellings of head and neck region.
abstract: Head and neck mass lesions are frequently found in clinical practice. A spectrum of pathological lesions ranging from simple benign lesion to highly malignant manifestation is observed.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To make clinicopathological correlation of head and neck lesions and to assess the frequency of incidences of different sites, age groups, sex, and distribution among inflammation and neoplastic lesion.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective study was conducted from January 2011 to April 2012. Fine-needle aspiration diagnosis was correlated with details of relevant clinical findings and investigations. Patients aged between 1 and 70 years were included in the study. A total of 200 patients with the swellings of head and neck underwent fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Out of 200 fine-needle aspiration procedures, 52% were of thyroid, 28.50% were of lymph node, 11% from salivary gland, and 4% from soft tissue and miscellaneous swellings. There were 4.5% cases in which diagnosis was not possible. In inflammatory swelling (33%), tuberculous lymph node (42.12%) involvement is common than all other sites with male preponderance (55%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  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. Thus, FNAC can be recommended as a first line of investigation in the diagnosis of head and neck swellings.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Mahatma Gandhi Medical College and Research Institute, Pondicherry 607 402, India. neempath@gmail.com
authors.forename: Gunvanti B
authors.initials: GB
authors.lastname: Rathod
authors.forename: Pragnesh
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Parmar
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D044963:Biopsy, Fine-Needle; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003560:Cysts / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006257:Head; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008198:Lymph Nodes / Q000473:pathology*; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009333:Neck; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012468:Salivary Gland Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D012469:Salivary Glands / Q000473:pathology*; D013961:Thyroid Gland / Q000473:pathology*; D013964:Thyroid Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D013966:Thyroiditis / Q000473:pathology; D014388:Tuberculosis, Lymph Node / Q000473:pathology; D055815:Young Adult