Clinicopathological study of head and neck swellings in patients attending ENT OPD

Abstract

A thorough clinical history and a good clinical examination including the findings of inspection and palpation are key factors for near accurate provisional diagnosis but histopathological examination is the only gold standard for confirmation of diagnosis till date for the head neck swellings. It has been observed that there was slightly higher ratio of female patients attending the OPD with complaints of neck swelling. Fine needle aspiration cytology is a quick, convenient, easy to perform, and fairly accurate method for cytological diagnosis on an outpatient basis. Importance of this study, particularly in the context of neck masses, lies in the fact that a preoperative cytological diagnosis of a benign lesion in a high-risk patient may obviate the need of a surgical intervention. Preoperative diagnosis of certain conditions like lymphoma and inflammatory pathology may also escape from unnecessary surgeries. It can be concluded that lymph node swellings are the most common amongst the neck swelling by far and on its cytological examination reactive lymphadenitis being the prevalent one. It can also be said that FNAC is the most reliable method for diagnosing the TB lymphadenitis and thyroid swellings.