Surgical treatment of childhood mediastinal tuberculous lymphadenitis

Between 1985 and 1991, we treated 6 children, aged 2 months to 3 years, who required an invasive procedure for the management of complications caused by enlarged mediastinal lymph nodes secondary to tuberculosis. Radiologic and endoscopic studies revealed bronchial involvement by lymph nodes, with endobronchial granulomas and lobar or pulmonary obstruction in 4 patients and marked tracheal and esophageal stenosis produced by extrinsic compression in the remaining 2. Pathologic study of the lymph node or bronchial samples from the 6 patients disclosed granulomas with caseous necrosis and Langhansʹ giant cells. All the children were treated with a standard 6-month drug regimen consisting of isoniazid, rifampicin, and pyrazinamide. Five of the patients underwent thoracotomy for the purpose of nodal curettage or excision. In 1, upper right lobectomy and bronchoplasty were necessary. The sixth patient was treated by endoscopic resection of the granulomas. There was no postoperative morbidity, and radiologic and endoscopic evidence of resolution of the lesions was observed in all the patients. In our experience, surgical treatment, when performed as a coadjuvant treatment for tracheobronchial complications stemming from mediastinal tuberculous lymphadenitis, results in the resolution of the lesions and has no related morbidity.