A swelling in the region of salivary glands may result from inflammations or tumors. These lesions may not always be accurately diagnosed on clinical findings alone, and the final diagnosis is often helped by histologic examination of the excised
lesions. The fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) and frozen section biopsy (FS) have proved to be a valuable aid in the diagnosis of salivary gland lesions. The review of the value of FS diagnosis in the surgical treatment of salivary gland
disease
suggests that FS diagnosis alone should no determine the surgical management of salivary gland disease.
Rather, it has been suggested that the clinical characterization of the disease, the history, FNAC diagnosis and surgical judgment should be given equal consideration if FS diagnosis is in doubt.
We examined the relative accuracy of the fine-needle aspiration cytology and frozen section biopsy in the diagnosis of salivary gland tumors through the retrospective analysis of 107 patients with salivary gland masses from March 1988 to July
1993.
1) The fine-needle aspiration cytology were performed in 107 patients, and completely and accurately diagnosed in 93 (86.9%) of them, including 25 (100%) of 25 nonneoplastic lesions, 58 (87.9) of 66 benign tumors, and 10 (62.5%) of 16 malignant
tumors.
2) Both fine-needle aspiration cytology and frozen section biopsy were performed in 26 of 107 patients. Among them 18 cases (69.2%) were correctly diagnosed by fine-needle aspiration cytology, and 17 cases (65.4%) by frozen section biopsy. So the
comparative accurcy of FNAC and FS was similar.
3) FS diagnosis at surgery offers no information regarding optimal preoperative treatment planning. But the information obtained by FNAC allows for preoperative patient management and better overall treatment planning. FNAC is useful adjunct in
the
work-up of salivary gland tumors and is optimally used when there is a good rapport between the pathologist and the surgeon. (Korean J Otolaryngol 38:4, 1995)
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