Tuberc Respir Dis.  1989 Jun;36(2):111-119. 10.4046/trd.1989.36.2.111.

A Clinical Study on Superficial Tuberculous Lymphadenitis

• KMID: 2528557
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4046/trd.1989.36.2.111

Abstract

Fifty eight cases of superficial tuberculous lymphadenitis (STL) were studied by clinical, histopathological and bacteriological presentation from ]an. 1986 till Aug. 1988. In our study, the most prevalent age group was 20 to 29 year.old (60.4%), and the male to female ratio was 1:2. 1. STL comprised 3.5% of all tuberculous diseases and 18.2% of extrapulmonary tuberculosis. A total of 86.2% of patients complained of painless swelling or mass, and the most commonly affected lymph node was cervical one (58.6%). On palpation of their lymph nodes, 84.5% of cases fell into stage 2 and 3 at the time of their first visit. Pulmonary tuberculosis was the most common disease (50%) associated with STL. On chest radiographs, enlargement of paratracheal (lymph node) or hilar shadow was found in 12% of patients, which strongly suggested concomitant deep, mediastinal tuberculous lymphadenitis, and actually endobronchial tuberculosis was found in one case (1.7%). Histopathologically, 70.6% of patients were confirmed as having tuberculous lymphadenitis by needle aspiration of or excisional biopsy of the lymph node(s). Bacteriological study from aspiration material resulted in relatively high positivity of AFB smear (78.3%) but in low culture rate of tubercle bacilli (5.4%). Mantoux test showed positive reaction in every case taken. During treatment, development of new node(s) and fistula or sinus formation were found in a small propoπion (6.9% and 12.1 %, respectively). A total of 27.6% of patients were treated successfully with three to five antituberculous drugs for 12 to 24 months (17 months on the average).