Objective: Head and neck manifestations of seropositive HIV and AIDS are one of the commonest complications of the disease. FNAC is an excellant first line method for investing the nature of palpable lesions in head and neck region. Hence there is need to know the distribution and cytological features of the various types of lesions in the head and neck region in HIV positive patients and occurrence of different lesions according to age, sex and mode of presentation. Methods: The study included FNAC study of head and neck swellings in HIV seropositive patients referred to the department of pathology, KIMS, HUBLI, over a period of 18 months from 1st November 2012 to 30thApril 2014. Results: Total number of cases in the study were 107. Overall incidence of HIV patients reffered to Cytology was 4% with 70% of them presenting with head and neck swellings. Maximum age was 65 years and minimum was 1 year, majority being in the 3rd and 4^th decade and with male to female ratio as 1:1.07. Ninety percent cases were Inflammatory. Lymph node was the commonest site involved (89.7%) followed by parotid (4.7%) and soft tissue (4.7%). In lymph nodes, tuberculous lymphadenitis was the most common diagnosis (48.9%) followed by reactive lymphadenitis (42.7%), acute suppurative lesion (5.2%), neoplasm (2.1%) and cryptococcal lymphadenitis(1.1%). In parotid, acute sialadenitis (40%) was the most common diagnosis. In cytological diagnosis of malignant cases 3 cases of non hodgkins lymphoma and each of metastasis, poorly differentiated carcinoma, medullary carcinoma thyroid were diagnosed. Cytological pattern of tuberculous lymphadenitis was studied in detail and most common pattern was caseation necrosis with granulomas (48.9%). Conclusion: Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology study is a less expensive, less time consuming and a more patient compliant alternative to histological diagnosis of these swellings. Beside this, it helps in early commencement of appropriate treatement of HIV positive patients by providing rapid diagnosis and also helps in the follow up, especially with Tuberculosis lymphadenitis.

Keywords: HIV; Lymph Node; Tuberculous Lymphadenitis; Cryptococcal Lymphadenitis.