“…However, the authors stated that a direct comparison of FNA and CNB was not possible because of an unexpected significant heterogeneity in the findings of studies regarding FNA, and they concluded that CNB could be reserved for special clinical settings, such as cases that were not diagnosed with FNA, given the theoretic drawbacks of CNB, such as facial nerve damage or use of local anesthesia. 1,14 Our present data demonstrate that USCNB can be safely performed because none of our 282 patients experienced facial nerve injury, and it has a significantly higher diagnostic accuracy for malignant salivary gland tumors. Another disadvantage of USCNB is that it uses larger bore needles compared with USFNA, which might increase the potential risk for tumor seeding along the needle tract.…”