Cervical Adenitis
Andrew M. Margileth MD1
1 Department of Pediatrics, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, F. Edward Hebert School of Medicine, Bethesda, MD 20814-4799
Children with acutely tender and inflamed cervical lymph nodes are observed commonly by family physicians and pediatricians. Cervical lymphadenitis is usually associated with a systemic viral illness and subsides within a few days to 2 weeks. Bacterial adenitis, seen less often, is usually due to (
-hemolytic streptococcal or to staphylococcal infection. However, when a neck node remains enlarged following a systemic illness or when a nontender regional cervical node (adenopathy) persists longer than 2 or 3 weeks with or without associated illness, the physician and parents become worried. Concern is enhanced if the nodes increase in size or number. Infection and inflammation are the most common causes for persistent chronic (3 or more weeks' duration) lymphadenopathy in children. Whereas neoplasm is rare (1.4%) in the child or adolescent less than 17 years of age with a superficial lump on any part of the body, maligancy (Hodgkin disease, lymphoma, neuroblastoma) was found in 31 (13%) of 239 enlarged cervical nodes in similar-aged children at the same institution. Congenital and acquired cysts, pilomatrixomas, and benign neoplasms (lipoma, neurofibroma, lymphangioma) account for the majority of noninflammatory lesions in the neck in children and adolescents. However, most cervical lymphadenopathy in children is due to adenitis or reactive hyperplasia in response to an infection.
