PREOPERATIVE EVALUATION OF PAROTID TUMORS BY FINE-NEEDLE BIOPSY

Aims. Although fine needle biopsy (FNB) is a well established diagnost ic technique there continues to be controversy concerning its use in t he pre-operative assessment of intraparotid masses. The purpose of thi s study was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy, specificity and sensi tivity of FNB in parotid tumours and consequently to assess its clinic al value. Methods. Over a 6-year period, 129 consecutive patients with parotid masses underwent pre-operative FNB evaluation and in 121 of t hese cases the cytological diagnosis was confirmed. Results. Out of th e 86 cases cytologically diagnosed as benign, two false negative resul ts were obtained by FNB, whereas out of the 38 cytological diagnoses o f malignant tumours one case was found histologically to be Warthin's tumour. In the FNB results of the two cases suspicious for malignancy, one was confirmed histologically as malignant. Three cases of FNB wit h inadequate material were found to be benign lesions. In this trial, the diagnostic accuracy of FNB was 96.7%, the specificity, 97.6% and t he sensitivity, 95%. Conclusions. Our results show that FNB is a valua ble examination technique in the pre-operative evaluation of parotid m asses.