According to information from Children's Hospital 2, Ho Chi Minh City, swollen lymph nodes in the head, face and neck area in children often cause anxiety for many parents.
Head and neck lymph nodes in children can be divided into 4 main groups of causes, including inflamed lymph nodes, reactive inflammatory lymph nodes, tuberculous lymph nodes, and malignant lymph nodes.
Lymphadenitis is an enlarged lymph node due to inflammation or infection. This lymph node is often accompanied by signs of swelling, heat, redness, pain, and can cause abscesses. The lymph node will be treated with antibiotics or incision and drainage if it becomes abscessed.
Reactive lymph nodes are the most common. Lymph nodes are small organs of the immune system that trap viruses and bacteria and often swell in response to infections such as the common cold, ear, nose and throat infections, and head, face and neck dermatitis.
This type of lymph node will gradually decrease in size if the cause is treated thoroughly. However, the lymph node will slowly return to normal size over the next 2-4 weeks and may not disappear completely.
Tuberculous lymph nodes are characterized by being painless, often involving multiple lymph nodes in clusters, and appearing over a long period of time. To accurately determine whether the cause of the lymph nodes is tuberculosis or not, the best diagnostic method is lymph node biopsy.
Dr. Ho Tran Ban - Deputy Head of General Surgery Department added that malignant lymph nodes should be suspected when the lymph nodes are larger than 2cm, painful to the touch, hard, weak or immobile, and the child has systemic symptoms such as fatigue, anemia, etc. When these symptoms appear, the child needs to be examined and treated by a pediatric oncologist.
Most lymph nodes in the head, face and neck are benign, with only a very small number of cases at risk of malignancy. Whenever lymph nodes appear, parents should take their children to the doctor for timely evaluation and treatment.
