Spectrum of F.N.A.C in palpable post auricular lesions: A study of 2 years at a tertiary care hospital

Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology (F.N.A.C) is widely used for the assessment of various lesions. Post auricular lesions occurs in a wide spectrum of diseases including reactive conditions, infections such as tuberculosis, as well as primary lymphoid malignancies and secondary metastatic tumors. Post auricular lesions can include several anatomic sites and originating in different tissues and organs. Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology (F.N.A.C) is a simple, quick, cost effective procedure with minimum complications. Materials and methods: The study included patients presented with a postauricular lesions in a tertiary care hospital from January 2018 to December 2019. Detail clinical history and significant findings were noted. Aspirations were done by 10 ml syringe and 22/23-gauge needles. Smears were stained with PAP, Haematoxylin and Eosin and MGG stain. Cytomorphological diagnosis was given after clinco-pathological correlations. Results: Out of 50 patients of post auricular lesions studied, lymph node (53%) was the predominant site aspirated with tubercular lymphadenitis being the commonest lesion. Soft tissue lesions and miscellaneous constituted (39%) followed by salivary gland (8%). Conclusion: There was a wide spectrum of swellings from simple cyst to malignant mostly metastatic lesion. Though excisional biopsy is the gold standard for diagnosis of head and neck neoplastic lesion. FNAC is a rapid, cheap diagnostic tool now-a-days with an excellent overall diagnostic accuracy in differentiating nonneoplastic lesions from neoplastic lesions.