Fine needle aspiration cytology of the salivary glands: a twelve years’ experience

Objective: Fine needle aspiration (FNA) cytology aims to assist the clinician in the management of patients with salivary gland (SG) masses. We aimed to present our twelve-year experience concerning FNA in SG lesions to address the importance of this procedure. Study Design: Aspirates of 221 cases from SG lesions were reviewed retrospectively. In 151 cases, the FNA diagnosis was consistent with histologic findings. Results: FNA diagnoses were benign in 72.8%, and malignant in 19.2% of the cases. Eleven cases were reported as suspicious for malignancy. The diagnostic sensitivity was 94% and specificity was 100%. Eight of 43 malignant cases were clinically referred with no evidence for a malignant tumor initially, but FNA was reported as malignant or suspicious for malignancy. Conclusions: Our study documents that FNA is a highly sensitive and specific procedure. It provides preoperative recognition of benign and malignant tumors. Besides that, it helps to prevent unnecessary surgery in SG swellings. To our knowledge, this article is the largest series in Turkish literature concerning FNA of SG. We think that our results are suggestive for FNA to be a primary diagnostic tool in SG lesions.