Role of Contact with Tuberculous Patients in Cases of Tuberculous Cervical Lymphadenitis.

Abstract

A prospective, analytical and cross-sectional study to find out the role of contact with tuberculous patients during the process of development of Tuberculous Cervical Lymphadenitis was currently carried out in the Department of ENT- Head & Neck Surgery of Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital Kathmandu, Nepal. Altogether 103 cases of histopathologically confirmed cases of Tuberculous Cervical Lymphadenitis of more than six weeks of duration were included in the study during the period of one year from March, 2000 to February, 2001. History of contact with tuberculous patients in the past during the development of the disease process was found to be positive in 19(18.4%) of the 103 cases. In rest of the 84 cases history of contact with tuberculous patients was found to be negative (81.6%). The result of this study so far indicates that there is a minimal role of contact with tuberculous patients for the development of tuberculous cervical lymphadenitis. Although tuberculosis is known as a chronic communicable disease, in our study majority cases of Tuberculous Cervical Lymphadenitis did not give any history of contact with tuberculous patients in the past. Key Words: Tuberculous cervical lymphadenitis, tuberculous patients, communicable disease.