Introduction:

lymphadenopathy occurs in up to 90% of pediatric patients. In some cases, it is necessary to perform a biopsy to determine the etiological diagnosis, and offer the best therapeutic alternative. This study aims to describe the clinical characteristics of children and adolescents who underwent lymph node biopsy.

Material and methods:

cross-sectional, descriptive, and retrospective study carried out in a private hospital in Mexico City, in the period 2007-2017. Pediatric patients with adenopathies that required lymph node biopsy were included. Sex, age, characteristics of the adenopathies and histopathological diagnosis were recorded.

Results:

thirty-seven patients aged between five months and 18 years were studied. In 30 patients (81.1%) the adenopathy location was only in one topographic region, the most frequent being the cervical region (n = 22, 59.4%). In 62.2% (n = 23) the lymph node size was < 2 cm. By histopathology, reactive hyperplasia was the most common diagnosis (n = 19, 51.4%), in addition there were nine patients (24.3%) with infectious problems (viral, bacterial, or parasitic), seven patients (18.9%) had neoplasia (lymphomas, sarcomas, or histiocytosis of Langerhans cells), and three patients had rare pathologies: lymphangioma, dermopathic lymphadenitis, and Castleman’s disease.

Conclusion:

in pediatric patients who require lymph node biopsy due to lymphadenopathy, the most common etiology corresponds to a benign process, and in less than 20% to a neoplastic disease.