title: Surgical lymph node biopsies in a rural Ethiopian hospital: histopathologic diagnoses and clinical characteristics.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the clinical features and histological diagnoses of patients with lymphadenopathy in a rural general hospital.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  Gambo Rural General Hospital, located between the Arsi and East Shoa regions, 250 km south of Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), and the Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for the pathology examination carried out between December 2003 and July 2005.
  
  
  METHODS
  Retrospective cross-sectional survey.
  
  
  RESULTS
  308 patients with enlarged superficial lymph nodes with surgical lymph node excision. The most common diagnoses were tuberculosis lymphadenitis (TB-L) (74.4%), followed by non-specific reactive lymphadenitis (10.2%), malignant secondary lymphadenopathy (7.5%), and lymphomas (7.1%). In the multivariate analysis, TB-L was significantly associated with previous antibiotic treatment for more than 20 days (adjusted odds ratio (aOR): 3.70; 95% CI: 1.43-9.59) (p = 0.007), and female sex (OR: 2.07; 95% CI: 1.09-3.9). Non-specific reactive lymphadenitis was significantly associated with paediatric cases (aOR: 4.42; 95% CI: 1.78-10.87) (p = 0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results show that tuberculosis is a major problem in this area.
authors.affiliation: Unit of. Infectious Diseases, Internal Medicine, Spain.
authors.forename: Jose Manuel
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Ramos
authors.forename: Francisco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Reyes
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Facin
authors.forename: Abraham
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tesfamariam
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D001706:Biopsy; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005002:Ethiopia; D005260:Female; D006780:Hospitals, Rural; D006801:Humans; D008197:Lymph Node Excision; D008198:Lymph Nodes / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D008206:Lymphatic Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D015995:Prevalence; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D017678:Sex Distribution; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000150:complications; D055815:Young Adult