Abstract

Hodgkin's disease is a lymphoreticular malignancy that usually presents as painless lymphadenopathy, frequently in the cervical area. The most frequently palpable lymph nodes of the Hodgkin's disease at presentation are in the lower cervical and supraclavicular areas. Lymphadenopathy of high cervical nodes are commonly diagnosed as reactive lymphadenopathy rather than the Hodgkin's disease which may cause a delay in making a correct diagnosis of Hodgkin's lymphoma. Here we report 3 cases which were admitted with the chief complaint of high cervical mass. They were initially misdiagnosed as nonspecific lymphadenitis and were treated with antibiotics for a few weeks without improvement. Therefore, we performed excisional biopsy of palpable nodes to confirm to diagnose the Hodgkin's disease. The patients were treated with radiotherapy or chemoradiotherapy according to Ann Arbor staging. In our experience, excisional biopsy is preferred in cases of high cervical lymph nodes greater than 3 cm in diameter which are not accurately diagnosed with fine needle aspiration biopsy and are not responsive to antibiotics for a few weeks.

• Keywords: Hodgkin's disease, High cervical lymph nodes, Excisional biopsy