Thin-needle aspiration biopsy: the diagnosis of head and neck tumors revisited

Results of 567 thin-needle aspiration biopsies of head and neck lesions are reviewed. Cases included lymph nodes, salivary glands, thyroid, soft tissue and bone lesions. For the entire series, 17 patients had unsatisfactory aspirations. There were 12 false negative reports and 4 false positive reports, rates of 2.1% and 0.7%, respectively. No radical treatment resulted from false positive diagnoses and no patient delay in treatment occurred because of false negative reports. In the case of benign and malignant tumors, reports were histologically specific in more than 98% of the cases. This technique is simple to perform and saves time and hospital costs. Thin-needle aspiration biopsy can be effectively used in the management and diagnosis of head and neck tumor patients where close cooperation of the clinician and cytopathologist exists.