Fine needle aspiration of 123 head and neck masses--an initial experience.

Fine needle aspiration (FNA) is a relatively new technique in the investigation of head and neck masses in Singapore. We present our initial experience with 123 neck masses; 82 were lymph nodes, 33 were salivary gland masses and eight were others. The inadequacy rate (percentage of hypocellular yields) was 12.2% with a cytology: histology accuracy rate of 82.6%. The aspiration trolley set-up and improvements in tissue handling reduced the number of inadequate smears. A study of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) with neck recurrence showed the difficulty encountered with FNA in irradiated necks. In "occult" (clinically normal nasopharynx) NPC with a neck mass as the first presentation, FNA guided us to re-search the nasopharynx.