Cervical lymph node biopsies in King Abdulaziz University Hospital

Abstract EN

Two hundred and sixty-two (262) patients underwent cervical lymph node biopsies at King Abdul-Aziz University Hospital (KAUH) over a seven-year period.

Of those, 145 (55.3 %) patients had tuberculosis, 59 (22.5 %) had malignancy, 50 (19 %) had reactive lymphoid hyperplasia, 6 (2.3 %) patients had chronic non-caseating granulomatous inflammation, and 1 (0.4 %) patient had acute suppurative lymphadenitis.

Fine needle aspiration bi¬opsy (FNAB) was performed in 23 (8.7 %) patients only, which showed a pos¬itive correlation (78 %) with the results of open biopsy.

It is concluded that tu¬berculous cervical lymphadenitis is the most common cause of isolated cervical lymphadenopathy at KAUH and FNAB was underutilized, although it has a significant positive correlation of 78 % with open biopsy.