Peroral fine needle aspiration cytology of parapharyngeal lesions.

Peroral fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) was carried out on 63 patients with parapharyngeal lesions from January 1986 to March 1992. The age of the patients ranged from 4 to 87 years. Analysis of the results showed 12 inflammatory lesions, 28 benign tumors and 23 malignant neoplasms. Correlation with histopathology showed a diagnostic accuracy of 88.2%, with no false-positive reports. FNAC can replace incisional biopsy, which may be hazardous in this area. Surgery can be avoided for inflammatory lesions.