Abstract:
Background:Salivary gland tumors are a morphologically and clinically diverse group of
neoplasms, which may present significant diagnostic and management challenges. Malignant
salivary gland neoplasms account for more than 0.5% of all malignancies and approximately 3-
5% of all head and neck cancers. Despite its occurrence and posing diagnostic challenges
cytopathologic patterns of salivary gland mass is not studied adequately in Ethiopia.Objective:
To identify cytopathologic patterns of salivary gland mass on fine needle aspiration cytologyin
JimmaUniversity Medical Center from September 2015 to August 2018.Methods: A
retrospective cross-sectional study design wasapplied to records of patients seen at JUMC
pathology department with salivary gland masses from September 2015 to August 2018.Data
was collected using structured check lists manually by cytopathology technicians working in the
department. Data was entered into Epi data v.3.1., cleared and exported to SPSS V.20 for
analysis.Result : There were 191 cases of salivary gland mass. The age of the patients ranged
from 1 to 80 years with an average age of 33.5 years. Ninety nine (51.8%) patients were males
and 92(48.2%) were females with male to female ratio of 1.1:1.The cytological diagnoses
included malignancy 39(20.4%), suspicious 5(2.6%), benign neoplastic 68(35.6%), nonneoplastic 77(40.3%) cases and 2(1%) were non diagnostic. Chronic sialadenitis found in
37(48.1%) case is the most common non neoplastic cases. Among the 68 benign neoplasms,
pleomorphic adenoma was the most common lesion (54out of 68 cases; 79.4%) followed by
Warthin’s tumor (6 cases; 8.8%). Among the malignant neoplasm mucoepidermoid carcinoma
was the most common (18 out of 39 cases;46.2%) followed by acinic cell carcinoma(10 out of 39
cases;25.6%). The parotid gland was the most commonly involved salivary gland
87cases(45.5%) followed by the submandibular gland 79 cases(41.4%) .
Conclusion:The most common neoplasm of salivary gland is the benign tumors, mainly the
pleomorphic adenoma and the majority of them in the parotid gland in young adults.
Mucoepidermoid carcinoma is the most common malignant tumor predominantly seen in
parotid.Submandibular gland is the most common site for non neoplastic salivary gland
