Clinico-pathological evaluation of neck swellings at our tertiary care hospital

Abstract

Introduction: Neck swelling can be a cause of major concern to the patients as well as the doctor in respect to the diagnosis and treatment. The neck contains a substantial amount of lymph nodes that is 35-50% of all total lymph nodes. The main causes of a neck mass are classified as congenital, inflammatory and neoplastic. FNAC is a cost-effective method and quick for sampling superficial masses found in the neck. The technique can be done in outpatient basis. Aim and Objective of the study: purpose of this study is to evaluate the various causes of Neck masses, their incidence and to correlate diagnosis with various diagnostic modalities. Materials and Methods: A detailed history-taking including age, sex, community, ethnicity, complaints and duration of symptoms, site, side etc. and with thorough clinical examination relevant investigations for consistency, diagnosis, benign or malignant was done and appropriate management has been done for these patients. Results: The correlation between FNAC and histopathology in our study was 88% (out of 100 cases, 86 cases had a positive correlation of fine needle aspiration cytology with histopathological examination).