AbstractBackground: Non neoplastic salivary gland lesions have to be differentiated from neoplastic lesions that mandates preoperative evaluation by aspiration cytology. Objective: To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of the non neoplastic salivary gland lesions by fine needle aspiration. Materials and Methods: This is a cross sectional study was conducted in the Department of Pathology, at two tertiary care centres. The clinical details and examination findings were recorded. The aspirates were studied by two pathologists. The cytology smears were subsequently correlated with histopathology. The collected data were analyzed statistically for sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and overall diagnostic accuracy of FNAC. Data analysis was done with SPSS. Results: A total of 135 patients studied of which 58 were non – neoplastic lesions. Most common age of presentation was 3-4th decade. Chronic sialadenitis was commonest (45%) followed by Benign cystic lesion (26%), Acute sialadenitis (16%), lymphoepithelial lesion (12%) and Granulomatous sialadenitis (1%). The sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic accuracy of non-neoplastic lesion was 96%, 100% and 96.6% respectively. The positive and negative predictive value is 100% and 75% respectively. Conclusion: The salivary gland lesions constitutes only a small proportion of head and neck cytology, however cytology poses difficulty in arriving at lesion specific diagnosis. Our study eliminated the risk of surgery in 20% of patients and were managed conservatively. Hence fine needle aspiration holds good for the initial evaluation of patients with major salivary gland lesions especially in experienced hands.
Keywords: Salivary Gland, Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology, Histopathology, Non-Neoplastic Lesions.
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