Background: Neck masses form a relatively common presentation in an Surgical outpatient clinic. In the adult population a neck mass greater than 2 cm in diameter is reported to have greater than 80% probability of being malignant. Due to the wide variety of primary sites, good clinical acumen is essential to narrow down the investigations and arrive at a proper diagnosis. The objectives of the study were to find the distribution of benign and malignant lesions among non thyroid neoplastic neck swellings and to describe the demographic profile and other features of these patients.

Methods: This was a Descriptive study carried out at the General Surgery department of Government Medical College Thiruvananthapuram. 54 patients with non thyroid neck swellings were evaluated for 1 year and their clinical as well as cytological findings recorded. This data was analysed to find the study objectives.

Results: Among the studied patients, 85.2% were malignant while 14.8 were benign neoplasms. 78.3% of malignant neck masses were secondaries and 21.7% were primary in origin. Pleomorphic adenoma was the commonest benign neoplasm. Histologically 60% of primary malignant neoplasms turned out to be Hodgkin’s lymphoma and 30% revealed non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Pathology wise, 72.2% of the cases were squamous cell carcinoma and 13.9% were adenocarcinoma.

Conclusions: Malignant swellings are the commonest among non thyroid neck masses. Metastatic cervical lymphadenopathy is the predominant pathological type among these swellings. Hence detailed examination and appropriate investigation is essential to localise the primary in time and ensure optimal treatment outcome.

Keywords: Biopsy, Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology, Neck masses, Non thyroid tumors.

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