International Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Pathology

Methods: A total of 841 patients with head and neck swellings reporting to Department of Pathology for FNAC were included.

Results: Male to female ratio was 0.51:1. Majority of the cases were in the age group of 31-40 years (35.7%). 64.4% of the swellings were seen in thyroid, 30% in cervical lymph nodes, 5.1% in salivary glands and 0.5% was constituted by other sites. Malignant lesion was seen in 9% cases. Most of the thyroid lesions were found to be colloid goitre (52%). Malignancy was seen in 7.9% of thyroid swellings. Among the cervical lymph node enlargements, 57.9% cases were of reactive lymphadenitis while 11.9% were of malignancy.

Conclusion: The most common site of involvement was thyroid gland. The most common benign lesion seen was colloid goitre while malignancy of cervical lymph nodes was the most common malignant lesion.