[Fine needle aspiration of tumors of the salivary glands].

Tumours in the large salivary glands i.e. glandula submandibularis and glandula parotis are easily accessible by fine needle aspiration. Because of the great variation in morphology, diagnosis is difficult and requires a high level of experience. In this study, which lasted for 4.5 years, 343 fine needle aspiration were carried out on 343 patients. Cytological diagnoses were made in 336 lesions and histological diagnosis in 113. Four false positives and one false negative resulted in a sensitivity of 96.9% and a specificity of 95.3% with respect to malignancy. All aspirations were carried out by experienced cytopathologists, in close cooperation with an attendant ear, nose and throat specialist.