A Cross Section Study to Correlate Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology and Histopathology in the Diagnosis of Parotid Tumours at Four Major Hospitals in Zambia

Background: Needle Aspiration Cytology (FNAC) is cheap, simple, quick, minimally invasive procedure that is widely used for preoperative diagnosis of Parotid tumours.
Methods: Twenty five patients were prospectively studied over a two-year period at four major hospitals in Zambia. FNAC was done using a 10cc syringe and 20-22G needles for sample collection and specimen staining was done with papanicolaou stain. Histopathology was assessed with Haematoxylin and Eosin (H&E) stained sections.
Results: FNAC correlated with histopathology with a sensitivity of 100% and specificity of 66.7%; positive and negative predictive values of 95.7% and 100% respectively and a likelihood ratio of 3. All Parotid tumours were neoplastic with 76% benign and 24% malignant tumours on histopathology. FNAC accurately diagnosed 68% benign and 20% malignant tumours.
Conclusion: This study found that FNAC correlates well with histopathology in the diagnosis of parotid tumours. FNAC is useful in the preoperative assessment of Parotid tumours as it provides a preoperative diagnosis that influences management by either avoiding surgery (inflammatory lesion) and limiting the extent of surgery for benign and malignant Parotid tumours.