Salivary Gland Swellings: A Retrospective Study of Cytological Findings

Introduction: Salivary gland disorders can arise frominfection, inflammation, cystic changes, degenerativeprocess and neoplastic etiologies. Most commonconditions of salivary gland disease result from acuteinfection and inflammation. These swellings canusually be diagnosed clinically .Reports of salivarygland tumours are also on the rise, with one studyrevealing the incidence to be 6% of all head andneck tumors. Materials and methods: Retrospectiveanalysis of salivary gland swellings, diagnosed byfine needle aspiration cytology from Kartik 2072 toChaitra 2074, was done. Result: The most commonage group with manifestation of salivary glandpathology was 11-20 years (19.4%). Non neoplasticswellings comprised 56% of the cases, while therest comprised of neoplastic swellings. Conclusion:Chronic infection and pleomorphic adenoma werethe most common diseases involving salivary glandsare, among nonneoplastic and neoplastic grouprespectively. Keywords: salivary gland, malignancy,benign tumours, sialdenitis