Background: The commonest clinical presentation in any out patient department is lymphadenopathy. Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) is a simple, reliable, rapid and inexpensive method to diagnose various cause lymph node enlargement. Aim: 1. To report the incidence and to describe the various causes of lymphadenopathy. 2. To evaluate the usefulness of FNAC in etiological diagnosis of lymph node enlargement. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 306 cases of lymph node enlargement in our study from Jan 2015 to August 2016. Patients who had minimum four smears from each aspiration site were included in our study and the smears were routinely stained with Papanicolaou stain and special stains where ever necessary. Results: Out of 306 cases, there were 170 (55.56%) males and 136 (44.4%) were females. Cervical lymph node enlargements were found in 245 cases (80%). In our study, 85% cases were benign and 15% cases were malignant with tuberculous lymphadenitis was the commonest presentation in 166 cases (63%). Accuracy of diagnosis was more than 90% in most of the cases. Conclusion: FNAC is an excellent first line method in diagnosing causes of lymphadenopathy and it serves as an easy alternative to open biopsy as it can be done as an outpatient procedure.

Keywords: FNAC; Lymphadenopathy; Tuberculous Lymphadenitis; Papanicolaou Stain.