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Salivary gland lesions are a group of heterogeneous lesions inclusive of non-neoplastic and neoplastic lesions. History, clinical examination and preoperative investigations attempt to minimise the challenges faced in diagnosing these diverse lesions. Preoperative investigations include imaging and cytopathology. The advent of onsite evaluation methods to ensure sample adequacy and newer reporting systems that assign risk of malignancy has improved the sensitivity and specificity of cytopathology. The scope of this review is limited to the preoperative cytopathological investigations and the diagnostic challenges met in reporting salivary gland tumours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Fine needle aspiration cytology for salivary gland lesions has shown to be adequately sensitive and specific for diagnosing and treating salivary gland pathologies. The Milan System for Reporting Salivary Gland Cytopathology was developed and introduced to provide enhanced communication and improved overall care. Aims: The present study was taken up to assess the accuracy (sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values) and risk of malignancy of various diagnostic categories when the Milan system is applied and particular emphasis has been laid on cases that showed varied cytohistopathological correlation to highlight the analytical intricacies. Settings and Design: The present study is a two-year retrospective descriptive study conducted in a tertiary care hospital, Vijayawada. Methods and Material: Fine needle aspiration smears, relevant clinical details, histopathological slides and final reports were retrieved from the Departmental archives. The FNA results of the present study were re-categorized according to the Milan system and number of false positives, false negatives, true positives and true negatives were assessed in comparison with the final histopathological diagnosis and thus the accuracy and risk of malignancy of each diagnostic category were calculated. Results: The overall cytological diagnostic accuracy for differentiating malignant from benign tumors in the present study is 90%, with a sensitivity of 73.34%, specificity of 95.56%, positive and negative predictive values of 84.62% and 91.49% respectively.In the present study the highest risk of malignancy was seen in Atypia of undetermined significance (category III-100%) according to the Milan system. Conclusions: Use of The Milan System of Reporting salivary gland Cytopathology can increase the overall effectiveness and communication with clinicians and between institutions thus improving the overall patient care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]