Mesenteric lymph node tuberculosis

Everyone knows that tuberculosis is a common respiratory infectious disease that can occur in many organs of the body. Among them is mesenteric lymph node tuberculosis, which, as the name suggests, is tuberculosis occurring in the mesenteric lymph nodes. Friends who are not studying medicine may not be very clear about the mesenteric lymph nodes. In fact, it is also one of the body's immune organs, and there are many lymph nodes distributed in the mesentery.

Mesenteric lymph node tuberculosis can be either primary or secondary. Primary refers to the process in which the tuberculosis bacteria enter the human blood circulation and then reach the mesenteric lymph nodes to cause lesions, while secondary refers to the occurrence of tuberculosis in other parts of the body, such as pulmonary tuberculosis, which then circulates through the blood to form mesenteric lymph node tuberculosis.

Causes of mesenteric lymph node tuberculosis: Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection can cause mesenteric lymph node tuberculosis. This disease is more common in children and adolescents and is divided into primary and secondary types. The primary type is often caused by drinking milk or dairy products contaminated with Mycobacterium tuberculosis; the secondary type is more common than the primary type and is mostly secondary to open pulmonary tuberculosis or intestinal tuberculosis. If the diseased lymph nodes rupture, it can cause tuberculous peritonitis.

Pathogenesis of mesenteric lymph node tuberculosis: It is more common in childhood and can be primary or secondary to intestinal tuberculosis or pulmonary tuberculosis. In primary cases, the bacteria usually enter the lymph nodes directly through the healthy intestinal wall, or the original lesions in the intestinal wall have completely healed without leaving any traces. In secondary cases, most have obvious lesions in the lungs or intestines. The lymph nodes most frequently affected are in the ileocecal region, in the retroperitoneal space medial to the cecum and ascending colon, and in the lower part of the small bowel mesentery. Occasionally, the lymph nodes in the upper abdomen may also have tuberculous lesions. Depending on the stage of the disease, the affected lymph nodes may undergo various changes such as acute enlargement, caseous changes, suppuration, or nodular calcification. Some calcified lymph nodes can be as hard as stones and may look very similar to kidney stones or gallbladder stones on X-ray examinations, so they often require pyelography or cholangiography to be differentiated. Some caseous changes or cold abscesses in lymph nodes may merge into a mass as big as a fist and can only be identified by laparotomy.

With the development of the economy, people's living standards have improved a lot, and the corresponding living environment and hygiene conditions have also been greatly improved. Now the number of tuberculosis patients has decreased a lot compared with before liberation. The number of patients with mesenteric lymph node tuberculosis has decreased a lot, but there are still some sporadic cases, so it is very important to control the source of the disease, and patients with tuberculosis should receive regular treatment.