[Lymphadenitis toxoplasmotica--a zoonosis]

Between 1975 and 1985, 49 in-patients suffering from Toxoplasmosis of head and neck lymph nodes, have been treated chirurgically at the ENT clinics of the universities of Cologne and Homburg/Saar. In the collective there are as much men as women. The patients have an average age of 30 years, the anamnesis is about 3 months. The patients were complaining of swellings of lymph nodes of the angle of mandible or of the submandibular region, but without fever or other signs of infection. Typically, the lymph nodes were not fixed but mobile, hard and indolent. Blood parameters and electrolytic levels are not pathologically changed. The patients do not feel sick in general. The diagnosis is to be confirmed by serological investigations, supported by lymph node histology (Lymphadenitis Piringer-Kuchinka). In the present study, three acute cases of Toxoplasmosis with high serological titers could be diagnosed. The differential diagnosis of the lymphadenitis toxoplasmotica will be discussed.