[Lymph node tuberculosis in Cameroon: clinical and anatomo-pathologic aspects; apropos of 333 cases]

For a period of 11 years and 7 months (1st January 78-31 July 89), 1950 lymph nodes were received in the pathology laboratory of Cameroon. 333 of these, that is 17% revealed typical lesions of tuberculosis. Analysing the information associated to these tuberculoid adenitis revealed that: 46% of the patients were less than 10 years of age; 83.8% of the specimens were taken from the cervical region. 78% of patients had fever, cough was complained of by 56% and 40% had polyadenopathies. Finally, 81% of the tuberculoid lymph nodes analyzed had a diameter less than 5cm while only 33% showed acid fast bacilli on direct examination (Ziehl-Neelsen staining method) on the histologic slides.