Objective: To evaluate the utility of fine needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) in the study of salivary gland pathologies and to assess its capacity to provide an accurate diagnosis and discriminate between cases requiring surgery or not.
Study design: From January 1985 through December 1995, FNABs were carried out on 153 patients with salivary gland tumors. In 4 of the 153 cases the aspiration was inadequate. Of the remaining 149 FNAB diagnoses, 63 were checked histologically and 86 clinically.
Results: Regarding the capacity to discriminate between neoplastic (malignant and benign) and nonneoplastic lesions FNAB correctly diagnosed 144 lesions (135 true negative [TN] and 9 true positive [TP]) and failed in 5 cases (false negative [FN]). Regarding the capacity to discriminate between tumors requiring surgery or not, the FNAB diagnoses were true in 146 cases (83 TP, 63 TN) and false in 3 (2 FN, 1 false positive). The values for sensitivity, specificity, negative predictive value and total diagnostic accuracy were 97.64%, 98.43%, 96.92% and 97.98%, respectively.
Conclusion: FNAB has an impact on the treatment of salivary gland masses. The data on its ability to distinguish between lesions requiring surgery or not are encouraging.