English

Abstract

BACKGROUND Lymphadenopathy is a common clinical condition and biopsies are usually undertaken to determine the cause of nodal enlargement, which may be neoplastic or non-neoplastic. The neoplastic disorders are categorized into haematolymphoid malignancies and metastasis, while the causes of non-neoplastic lymphadenopathy are diverse. This study was undertaken to determine the histopathological spectrum in lymph node biopsies. METHODS This was a descriptive study of 357 cases of histologically diagnosed peripheral lymph node biopsies in the Department of Pathology, Govt. Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, S. India conducted from January 2019 to December 2019. Treated cases of malignancies were excluded. RESULTS The non-neoplastic lesions were more common accounting for 67.2 % (240 cases) which included 40.3 % (144 cases) of non-specific reactive lymphoid hyperplasia, 3.9 % (14 cases) of other specific lymphoid hyperplasia, 16.2 % (58 cases) of tuberculous lymphadenitis, 6.7 % (24 cases) of other granulomatous lesions. Neoplastic lesions accounted for 32.8 % (117 cases) and included 16.2 % (58 cases) of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, 3.9 % (14 cases) of Hodgkin’s lymphoma and 12.6 % (45 cases) of metastatic lesions. CONCLUSIONS Lymph node biopsy plays an important role in establishing the cause of lymphadenopathy. Among the biopsied nodes, reactive follicular hyperplasia was the most common (40.3 %) followed by Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and tuberculous lymphadenitis (16.2 % each) and metastasis (12.6 %). KEYWORDS Lymphadenopathy, Lymph Node, Metastasis, Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, Reactive Lymphoid Hyperplasia, Tuberculosis