Tuberculosis remains a serious public health problem, and in Brazil, the principal agent for this disease is the Mycobacterium tuberculosis. In
infancy, among extrapulmonary forms, one of the most frequent and less studied is that involves the superficial lymph nodes. In order to determine the
incidence and to know the epidemiologic, clinical and laboratory features of lymph nodes tuberculosis, between January, 1995 to December, 1996, in the
attendance outpatient unit of Hospital Ofir Loiola, it was enrolled 73 children from both sexes, aged 0 to 14 years, with enlargement of the cervical lymph
nodes. The samplewas divided in 2 groups: in the first group, it was located 61
patients with adenopathy from etiologies other than tuberculosis, while 12 patients with cervical tuberculosis adenopathy took part in the second group. In this study, concerning tuberculosis adenopathy, for one hundred thousand in habitants,in the metropolitan area of Belem, it was observed an year rate
incidence of 1.03 . Regarding adenopathy from other etiologies, the incidence was 4.27 and 6.15, in 1995 and 1996, respectively. The great majority of
childhood adenopathy (64.4%) was nonspecific, although, when it was considered just those of known etiology, the relative risk of being tuberculosis
was1.17. In both groups, the greatest incidence of cervical adenopathy was observed among preschool male children. However, when it was made a
comparative analysis between the groups, there were no statistic significative differences toward age, sex, nutritional status, clinical symptom onset, type and
characteristics of the affected lymph nodes. Disturbance in the nutritional status may have played a role to enhance the morbidity in 41.7% of the tuberculosis cases. The evidence of a cervical mass was the main symptom in the 2 studied
groups, though, 75.1% of children with lymph node tuberculosis also had a general involvement of other lymph nodes chains. All children with cervical
lymph node enlargement, which proved later to be of tuberculosis etiology had at least one month of illness course, and in such circumstances, a cold abscess
represented the main symptom in 25% of them. It was possible to identify the sourceof infection in 1/3 of patients. Among children with tuberculosis, 63.6%
had a positive tuberculin skin test, with a reaction 210 mm. Considering all bacteriologic procedures performed, culture turned to be the main element to
tuberculosis diagnosis, with 100% positive results; while baciloscopy had little importance. Histopatologic exams showed granulomatosis lesions suggesting
tuberculosis, in 88.9% of the sample. Concomitant pulmonary involvement was observed in 27.3% of children with lymph node tuberculosis. A good therapeutic response was seen using the pattern scheme adopted by Health Ministery, with out adverse reactions.
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