Peripheral lymphadenopathy in children in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. A study from biopsy material.

Children are commonly brought to the primary physician because of palpable peripheral lymph nodes. In order to determine the common causes 257 excisional peripheral lymph node biopsies of children between four days and 15 years of age were analysed. The diagnoses made were: tuberculous lymphadenitis (67.3%), non-specific reactive lymphadenitis (20.6%), malignant neoplasm (11.3%) and histiocytosis-X (0.8%). Fifty percent of the children with tuberculous lymphadenitis were less than five years of age. Of the neoplasms Hodgkin's disease was the commonest (34.5%).