Aim: To study the accuracy, advantages and limitations of FNAC in diagnosing tubercular lymphadenitis in cases of cervical lymph node swellings. Materials and Methods: Retrospective study was conducted over a period of 1 yr which included 72 patients who presented with lymph node swelling in the neck to the ENT outpatient department in our institute.Both males and females from all age groups were included in the study. In all 72 patients FNAC was done. Out of the 72 patients 28 patients agreed to undergo excision biopsy and their histopathological results were compared with the preoperative FNAC results in order to determine the accuracy of FNAC in correctly diagnosing tubercular lymphadenitis in particular. As 28 patients underwent excision biopsy following FNAC, the study group included the above 28 patients only. Results: Out of the 28 patients, incidence of males was slightly higher than females and all age group were included, the youngest was a 12 yr old and the oldest was 75 yr old. Out of the 28 patients with lymph node swelling, there were 10 tubercular lymhadenitis, 9 chronic non specific lymphadenitis, 5 metastatic carcinoma and 4 lymphomas proved hystologically. The diagnostic accuracy of aspiration cytology was 100% for tubercular lymphadenitis with all the 10 cases proved positive by FNAC. Conclusion: FNAC is a simple, quick, economical and least traumatic procedure that can be easily carried out on outpatient basis with high degree of accuracy. As the sensitivity of FNAC in diagnosing tubercular lymphadenitis is extremely high and in our study 100%, this investigation is alone enough to start the patient on medical line of treatment for tuberculosis which helps in reducing the inpatient burden for diagnosing the disease especially in counties like ours where the incidence of tuberculosis is still remains high.

Keywords: Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology (FNAC); Accuracy; Excision; Tuberculosis.