Efficacy of Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology in the Diagnosis of Oral and Oropharyngeal Tumors

Objective: To determine the efficacy of Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology (FNAC) in the diagnosis of oral & oropharyngeal tumors. Method: This was a hospital based prospective blind study conducted in the Department of Otolaryngology Head & Neck Surgery and the Department of Pathology, T.U.Teaching Hospital, Katmandu, Nepal. Patients presenting with Oral & Oropharyngeal lesions at the OPD were subjected to FNAC. Biopsies from the lesions were taken or the excised specimens were sent for histopathological examinations (HPE). The results of FNAC & HPE were correlated. Results: A total of 52 fine needle aspirations were carried out in patients suffering from oral and oropharyngeal tumors. With FNAC, 36.7 % of the tumors were reported as benign and 63.3 % malignant. FNAC showed positive correlation with HPE in 91.8%, falsely positive in 4.1 % and falsely negative in 2%. Overall absolute sensitivity was 97.83%, complete sensitivity 97.87 % and Specificity 88.35 % in diagnosing oral and oropharyngeal tumors. Conclusion: FNAC was found to be highly accurate in the diagnosis of lesions of the tonsils, hard palate and floor of mouth. It also proved to be highly accurate for malignant lesions. FNAC can be taken as a rapid