INTRAORAL AND TRANSORAL FINE-NEEDLE ASPIRATION - A REVIEW OF 25 CASES

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.