FNAC findings of head and neck lesions in our Institute- A 3 year retrospective study

Abstract

Background: There are several lesions of the head and neck region which are routinely encountered by different clinicians in patients among all age groups and diagnoses varies from benign lesions to malignancies. To identify these lesions, various diagnostic tools such as FNACs are being used which help the clinicians in a great way.Methods: This is a retrospective study done from August 2016 to October 2019 in a tertiary care hospital. All cases received in Department of Pathology were included in this study. It included a total of 310 cases. FNAC (including USG guided) were done from palpable masses of head and neck regions preferably from thyroid and breast lumps. Data entry and analysis were done using SPSS version 20.Results: A total of 310 patients who underwent FNAC of the head and neck region were included in this study. Maximum number of patients were in the age group of 21 to 30 years i.e. 85(27.42%) . In this study, 273(91.30%) cases were benign and 26(8.70%) cases were malignant lesions with aspirates from lymph nodes being the maximum. In our study, majority of the thyroid lesions 111(92.5%) belong to benign category II.Conclusion: It is concluded that FNAC proves to be a first line of investigation in the diagnosis of head and neck swellings. Here, most of the swellings occurred in the head and neck region. Thyroid FNA smears were also reported using the Bethesda system which helped in achieving more precise cytological diagnosis.