DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2018.v06i07.011

Pages: 2665-2668

The head and neck region encompasses a wide range of lesions especially of thyroid, lymph nodes and salivary glands with a variety of differential diagnosis ranging from inflammatory to neoplastic. They account for almost one half of all body sites aspirated. To make an accurate and effective surgical intervention, it is essential to make a pre-operative assessment of the nature of these lesions. The primary objective of the study was to assess the spectrum of head and neck masses and to determine the accuracy of FNAC in detection of various lesions in a tertiary care centre of India. The present study included 100 cases of head and neck swellings that had undergone preoperative FNAC and subsequently histopathological examination were included in the study. In our study, efficacy of FNAC in the diagnosis of various thyroidal and non-thyroidal lesions of the head and neck were obtained. Overall sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic accuracy rate of 89.27%, 99.25% and 88.66% were achieved. FNAC is recommended as a safe and reliable technique in diagnosis of thyroid and non-thyroidal head and neck lesions. It is a quick, convenient procedure and should be considered as a first line investigation in evaluation of the lesions of head and neck.