Background: Physicians in daily practice frequently attend children who present an increase in lymph node size. Care should be taken to determine which children require biopsy. Our objective was to analyze the usefulness of the peripheral lymph node biopsy in pediatric diagnosis.
Methods: We reviewed histological reports of 364 lymph node biopsies. Variables were age, sex, lymphadenopathy evolution time, laboratory and imaging studies, and histopathology diagnoses. Parametric and nonparametric tests were used.
Results: There were 211 males (57.9 %) and 153 females (42.0 %), the 1- to 6-year age group included 50.8% of cases. Average disease-evolution time was 5 months, and the predominant anatomic site was the cervical region. Histological report was reactive lymphoid hyperplasia (RLH) in 46.9%, followed by neoplasms in (24%), and granulomas (14.5%). Other diagnoses and normal lymph nodes represented 14.6 %. Of the 95 patients with high-risk lymphadenopathy, 29 cases had oncological diagnoses. Spearman coefficient was R(2) = 0.3485. To obtain a specific diagnosis indicates the probability of disease in lymph nodes of risk areas. However, the majority of the diagnoses were obtained from lymph nodes in different areas (Fisher's test, p <0.001). In 25 children with RLH, the binominal probability of diagnosis in the second biopsy was p = 0.0493. There was a >75% chance for detecting disease.
Conclusions: Peripheral lymph nodes in high-risk regions indicate probability relationship for determining disease. In persistent lymphadenopathy with an initial report of RLH, it is important to consider a second biopsy with high probability for obtaining a specific diagnosis.