To study incidence of cervical lymphadenopathy between age, sex and disease.
Methodology: A review of 100 cases of cervical lymphadenopathy from Shadan Institute of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad were used for analysis and discussion.
Results: Tuberculous cervical lymphadenitis is the commonest disease affecting the cervical lymphnodes 50% followed by secondaries from various primaries 39%, non-specific 5%, Hodgkins lymphoma 4% and non Hodgekins lymphoma 2% were diseases commonly found to be effecting cervical lymphonodes in the study conducted above, we had no cases of cat scratch disease or toxoplasma gondi or other in the group. Heigher incidence of tuberculous cervical lymphadenitis in the age group between 11-40 years. The youngest in the series was 11 years, oldest its 66 years. Average age is 35 years. The male: female ratio is 1:1 in present series. Tuberculosis is a disease of the poor still holds good. In the present study 71% of patients belong to socioeconomically low income groups. Hindus were more commonly affected than Muslim which usually vice versa is explained due to the fact that Hindu population is more than Muslim population in the area when this study was conducted. Distribution of disease is more in rural area 67%. According to the present series, this could be due to increase the awareness of the disease and improvement in living condition of the population living in the urban area.
Conclusion: There is very high incidence of tubercular cervical lymphadenitis in patients with enlarged neck nodes in developing countries like India. Cervical lymph node adenopathy constitutes the most common presentation of extra pulmonary form of tuberculosis. However, it mimics other pathological conditions like metastasis from other primary sites, reactive lymphadenitis, chronic non-specific lymphadenitis, lymphoma etc. Therefore, it is important that otolaryngologists are aware of tuberculosis in the head and neck region which can aid in early diagnosis with the help of simple investigations and subsequently patients can be managed promptly without delay.
