Ebrahim Razmpa - Department of otorhinolaryngology, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Babak Saedi - Department of otorhinolaryngology, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Majid Partomanesh - General physician

Introduction: The preoperative diagnostic evaluation of the parotid lesion is a valuable aid in planning the operation and the approach to intervention. Among different diagnostic tools, Fine Needle Aspiration has a key role. However, the exact efficacy of this technique in our center had not been thoroughly investigated. Materials and Methods: Between January ۲۰۰۰ and June ۲۰۰۷ a subset of ۶۴ patients who had agreed to undergo preoperative FNAB was selected. The FNAB diagnoses were compared with those of the surgical specimens as the gold standard. Then, sensitivity, specificity, predictive value, and pertinent characteristics of the patients were evaluated. Finally, the results were analyzed with SPSS version۱۴. Results: During the study period, ۸۱ patients underwent parotidectomy, only ۶۴ of whom had the FNA before surgery, so only the data collected from ۶۴ patients were evaluated. The most common clinical presentation ۷۵% (۴۸ patients) was a parotid mass. The second common presentation was facial paralysis at ۱۷.۲% (۱۱ patients), followed by pain at ۷.۸%.  The result of FNA sensitivity was ۸۲.۵% and specificity was ۹۳.۳%. The accuracy of the test was ۸۷.۵%. Positive predictive value was ۹۳.۳% and negative predictive value was ۸۲.۳۵%. Conclusion: Fine-needle aspiration cytology is a reliable method in the evaluation of parotid tumors with a fairly high specificity and sensitivity rate.

cytology, Fine-needle aspiration, Malignancy, Parotid neoplasm