The spectrum of various palpable lesions in head and neck region in a tertiary care hospital-FNAC study

Introduction: Head and neck swellings contribute to half of all aspirates being done for cytological examination. The present study was conducted to assess the frequency of various pathological conditions detected on FNAC in patients presenting with head and neck swellings. Methods: A total of 841 patients with head and neck swellings reporting to Department of Pathology for FNAC were included. Results: Male to female ratio was 0.51:1. Majority of the cases were in the age group of 31-40 years (35.7%). 64.4% of the swellings were seen in thyroid, 30% in cervical lymph nodes, 5.1% in salivary glands and 0.5% was constituted by other sites. Malignant lesion was seen in 9% cases. Most of the thyroid lesions were found to be colloid goitre (52%). Malignancy was seen in 7.9% of thyroid swellings. Among the cervical lymph node enlargements, 57.9% cases were of reactive lymphadenitis while 11.9% were of malignancy. Conclusion: The most common site of involvement was thyroid gland. The most common benign lesion seen was colloid goitre while malignancy of cervical lymph nodes was the most common malignant lesion.