OBJECTIVE Fine-needle aspiration (FNA) is a technique habitually used for the study of head and neck masses. This work evaluates the correlation between the cytological findings of the aspirations and the histological results observed after surgery. In addition, we set out the FNA protocol applied at our department. METHODS We have conducted a retrospective study from 1990 to 2005 that includes 192 cases with head or neck masses. The true positives (TP), true negatives (TN), false positives (FP), false negatives (FN), sensitivity, specificity and the positive (PPV), and negative (NPV) predictive values of this test have been calculated. RESULTS Of the 192 patients included in this study surgery was performed in 172 cases, for whom the cytohistological correlation was determined. The FNA was negative for malignant cells in 107 cases and positive in 60 cases. In 5 of the 172 cases FNA was not indicative. After the surgery, benignancy was confirmed in 104 of the 107 cases thus giving 3 FN and malignancy was confirmed in 58 of the 60 cases, i.e. 2 FP. With these data, the sensitivity obtained was 95.08 %, specificity was 98.11 %, while PPV was 96.67 % and NPV 97.20 %. CONCLUSIONS In the light of the results, FNA is a very useful method in the diagnostic work-up of head and neck masses.