Use of Fine Needle Cytology in the Diagnosis of Orbital and Eyelid Mass Lesions

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To study the use offine needle cytology (FNC) in the diagnosis of orbital and eyelid lesions. STUDY DESIGN: A total of 34 orbital and eyelid lesions were subjected to fine needle aspiration (FNA) and nonaspiration techniques, and the cytologic findings and diagnoses of 28 lesions were correlated histpathologically. Data were statistically analyzed, and the specificity, sensitivity, predictive values and rate of nondiagnostic aspirates were calculated. RESULTS: Of 28 cases, 9 were orbital and 19 were eyelid lesions. There was 100% concordance in differentiating benign vs. malignant orbital and eyelid lesions; the concordance with respect to the precise histologic diagnosis was 100% for orbital and 77.7% for eyelid lesions. The overall percentage of malignant lesions was 53.1%; the rest were benign neoplastic, cystic or inflammatory lesions. The overall concordance rate in differentiating benign vs. malignant lesions and for precise histologic diagnosis was 100% and 80.8%, respectively. The rate of nondiagnostic aspirates was 5.9%. Sensitivity, specificity and positive and negative predictive values of FNA in detecting malignant lesions were 100%. CONCLUSION: If done with adequate safety precautions to protect the eye, FNC is a simple, safe, reliable, minimally invasive and rapid test for diagnosis of orbital and eyelid lesions.