An audit of 75 cases of cervical lymphadenopathy

Objective: to find out the frequency of different diseases involving the cervical lymph nodes. material and methods: this is a prospective study conducted at the ent departments of dhq hospital,timergara,hayatabad medical complex and khyber teaching hospital,peshawar from june 2005 to july 2009. a total of 75 patients were included in this study. fine needle aspiration cytology (fnac) was performed in all cases,while,incisional/ excisional biopsy performed in cases where fnac was inconclusive. results: the age of patients ranged from 10-75 years with a mean of 36.52 ± 17.37sd. the male to female ratio was 1.2:1. the most common cause of cervical lymphadenopathy was tuberculosis in 25(33.3%),followed by metastasis in 24 (32%),reactive hyperplasia 16 (21.3%) and lymphoma in 10 (13.3%). among the 10 cases of lymphoma 7 were non hodgkin's lymphoma and 3 were hodgkin's lymphoma. conclusion: the commonest cause of cervical lymphadenopathy is tuberculosis followed by metastatic nodes,reactive hyperplasia and lymphoma. early accurate diagnosis is important for appropriate treatment of the underlying condition and prevents unnecessary complications. fnac is a good tool and should be applied whenever there is suspicion of malignancy.