Introduction and objectives:

the usage of fine needle aspiration cytology in the evaluation of parotid gland tumors is controversial, since there is great variability in terms of sensitivity and specificity in different series published. Our objective is to evaluate the usage of fine needle aspiration cytology in the study of parotid gland tumors in our population.

Methods:

A retrospective study was conducted using a sample of 77 patients with parotid gland tumors between 2000-2017 in two hospital centers in Montevideo, Uruguay, who underwent preoperative diagnostic fine needle aspiration cytology and subsequently were treated with surgery and anatomopathological study.

Results:

The mean age was 54 years old, with interval between 14-87 years of age. 56.8% were female. The sensitivity of the fine needle aspiration cytology for the diagnosis of malignancy was 30%, and the specificity was 98.46% with a positive predictive value of 75% and a negative predictive value of 90.14%

Conclusions:

fine needle aspiration cytology is a very useful diagnostic method in the evaluation of parotid gland tumors, mainly due to its high negative predictive value.

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