Fine needle aspirative cytology in the diagnosis of parotid gland neoplasms

Abstract

Background: Aspirative cytology is a technique used in order to differentiate benign and malignant lesions. The parotid is the most frequent site of salivary gland neoplasms and its malignant tumors constitute a disease with low incidence and high mortality. Objective: To describe the findings of fine needle aspiration cytology in the diagnosis of neoplastic lesions of the parotid gland in patients attended at the “María Curie” Camagüey Provincial Oncology Teaching Hospital. Methodology: An observational, descriptive, cross-sectional, study was conducted from 2017 to 2020 in a sample of 24 patients diagnosed with negative and positive parotid gland lesions, by aspiration cytology. The variables studied were age, sex, varieties of lesions according to cytologic findings and histologic changes that allowed the negative and positive diagnosis of malignancy. Results: The lesions predominated in older than 61 years, female and of negative type of malignancy. The most recurrent benign neoplasm was pleomorphic adenoma and the malignant was mucoepidermoid carcinoma. In all negative lesions prominent nucleoli, mitotic changes and necrosis were absent with the presence of clean bottoms, small and uniform nuclei. The changes that determined positivity varied according to histological type and tumor malignancy grade, and in 100% an increase in the number of cells was observed. Conclusions: Fine needle aspiration cytology allows us to characterize parotid gland conditions and establish prompt treatment by distinguishing negative and positive lesions.

Keywords

• citología aspirativa con aguja fina
• biopsia con aguja fina
• glándulas salivales
• glándula parótida
• neoplasias.