Aspiration Cytology for Diagnosis of Head and Neck Masses

Abstract

Most American clinicians have been reluctant to utilize aspiration biopsy due to poor interpretive skills by the pathologists in the past and a fear of tumor spread by the needle. Voluminous European series and recent American series have proved aspiration to be safe and reliable. In our series of 78 cases, both thin-needle aspiration and conventional tissue biopsies were made. The diagnoses were compared and the overall agreement rate was 90%.