Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology of Neck Masses in a Hospital

Abstract

Background: Fine needle aspiration cytology is a valuable technique in the work-up of masses arising within neck and represents a screening, inexpensive, and rapid technique to sample masses found in neck.

Methods: This study included 117 cases of neck masses, subjected to fine needle aspiration cytology at the department of Pathology of a hospital in Nepal from January 2013 to December 2013.

Results: The study included 117 patients with neck masses with median age of 37 years. The majority of the patients were in the age group of 20-29 yrs with female predominance. The most frequent cause of neck swelling is lymphadenopathy 65 (55.6%), followed by thyroid swelling 36 (30.7%), soft tissue lesion 12 (10.3%) and salivary gland lesions 4 (3.4%). The most common lesion in these patients was non-neoplastic, followed by malignant neoplasm. Tuberculosis is the most common cause of neck lymphadenopathy and colloid goiter is the commonest cause of thyroid swelling. In soft tissue, abscess is the most frequent one. Pleomorphic adenoma is more common than other salivary gland lesions.

Conclusions: Lymphadenopathy is commonest cause of neck mass, followed by thyroid gland & soft tissue swellings. Tuberculosis is the most common diagnosis of neck masses, followed by colloid goiter. Fine needle aspiration cytology is pretty accurate technique to diagnose neck masses and it is helpful to avoid unnecessary surgeries and in general clinical management and it is recommended as a first line of investigation in the diagnosis of neck masses.

 Keywords: fine needle aspiration cytology, lymphadenopathy, neck mass.