DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2017.v05i04.079

Pages: 1640-1648

Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) is a safe, simple, rapid, cost effective and minimally invasive way of diagnosing inflammatory, non-inflammatory & neoplastic lesions. The necessity to perform excision biopsy is reduced in many cases, saving children from surgical complications. The present study was designed to study the spectrum of superficial lesions, aspirated in the pediatric age group, with respect to the age, sex and anatomic distribution of the lesions, also to evaluate the number of benign and malignant cytological diagnosis and correlate the cytological diagnosis with the histopathological diagnosis wherever available. The present study is a retrospective study which was undertaken in the Department of Pathology, in a tertiary care hospital in Maharashtra from July 2014 to December 2016. Total 289 cases of superficial FNAC in pediatric age group (0-16Years) were studied. Male preponderance is noted. The majority of aspirates were of a benign nature i.e.95.90% and rest i.e. 4.10% were malignant. A subdivision of FNA diagnosis according to anatomic site revealed a distinct preponderance of lymph nodes, over all other sites i.e. 58.58%, this was followed by the head and neck region (excluding lymph nodes) i.e. 23.13%. The maximum number of aspirates was lymphadenitis i.e. 64.95% out of which the majorities were reactive lymphadenitis i.e. 44.39 %. Correlation between cytological and histological diagnosis was available in only 22.01% of cases. FNAC is a safe, simple, cost-effective procedure with high diagnostic accuracy and has got a good patient acceptance. In resource limited settings, health care providers should realize the importance of FNAC as an initial screening tool in superficial lesions in pediatric population and refer patients for it appropriately.