During a four year period, 25 intraoral and transoral fine needle aspi
rations were performed. The sites aspirated were the parapharyngeal sp
ace (7), palate (4), floor of mouth (3), tongue (3) and a variety of o
ther intraoral sites (8). Squamous cell carcinoma, the most common mal
ignancy encountered, was correctly diagnosed in six cases. Other malig
nancies correctly diagnosed were 2 malignant lymphomas, 1 mucoepidermo
id carcinoma and 1 adenoid cystic carcinoma. One malignant case called
''carcinoma, probably adenoid cystic carcinoma'' proved to be a mucoe
pidermoid carcinoma. One case called ''suspicious for squamous carcino
ma'' was found carcinoma in situ of the tongue was suggested and confi
rmed by subsequent biopsy, but the underlying adenoid cystic carcinoma
was missed. Of seven benign entities, five were correctly diagnonosed
by fine needle aspiration (FNA), and in three cases the FNA diagnosis
was equivocal. Unsatisfactory aspirates were obtained in Jour cases.
Despite some obvious problems, we consider FNA to be especially useful
for the evaluation of parapharyngeal masses, which are usually not ac
cessible to routine surgical biopsy, and for palatal masses, which are
usually submucosal and therefore often difficult to biopsy.