Background: Fine-needle aspiration is a widely accepted method in the preoperative evaluation of head and neck tumors. However, its effectiveness in the interpretation of salivary gland disorders is controversial.
Objectives: To evaluate the effectiveness of FNA as a preoperative diagnostic tool of parotid lesions.
Methods: Reports of 52 FNA from various parotid gland lesions were compared with the final pathologic diagnoses.
Results: We noted 31 true-positive, 5 true-negative and 16 false-negative results. There were no false-positive FNA reports. The calculated sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of FNA diagnosis in this study were 66%, 100%, and 69.2% respectively.
Conclusions: The high rate (30.8%) of false-negative FNA results was partly explained by sampling errors, therefore specificity of the procedure could be improved by the precise selection of a representative aspiration site.
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