| Sumario: | Objective: This study was performed to determine the usefulness of fine needle aspiration study (FNAC) in the pre-operative assessment of parotid tumours in our institution. Methods: All patients who had undergone parotid surgery from 1996 to 2005 were included. The definitive histopathological diagnosis was compared with the preoperative FNAC diagnosis. FNAC results were classified as suggestive, non-diagnostic, misleading or sampling error. Results: There was a total number of thirty eight patients who had a pre-operative FNAC result and underwent parotid surgery for tumours of the parotid. The sensitivity in distinguishing malignant from benign disease was 57 per cent with a specificity of 76 per cent. The overall FNAC accuracy in the diagnosis of parotid tumour was 74 per cent. Conclusions: FNAC was useful to provide an educated aid in the preoperative assessment in counseling the patients before surgery. It provides an additional aid for operative decisions, particularly when the results were interpreted vigilantly with the radiological and clinical findings.
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