Background & Objectives: Lymphadenopathy refers to the disease of lymphatic nodes. Any immune response against foreign antigens is often associated with lymph node enlargement (lymphadenopathy) and lymphadenitis. Most pathologic studies of neck lymph nodes indicated TB as the most common cause of cervical lymphadenopathy. Approach to a neck lymphadenopathy as the main complaint of the patients or the only clinical finding is usual events which physicians encounters frequently during their practice. M anagement of these patients depends on the physician experience and knowledge. This study aimed to investigate etiology of cervical lymphadenopathies in admitted patients.

  Methods : In this cross-sectional study, one hundred patients with cervical lymphadenopathy who referred to Fatemi hospital from 2002-2006 and underwent excisional biopsy with pathologic results were included. Demographic data ' age and sex', and pathologic findings were obtained using the patients' file . FNA results and non lymphoid samples were excluded . All findings were analyzed by SPSS.

  Results: A total number of 100 subjects were studied of whom, 52 (52%) were male and 48 (48%) were female. On the basis of pathologic findings, tuberculosis was the most common cause of lymphadenopathy (36%) . Reactive changes including follicular hyperplasia, sinus histiocytosis and other forms of lymphadenitis, metastatic carcinoma, Hodgkin and non Hodgkin lymphoma were found in 34%, 13%, 9% and 8% respectively. In patients aged under 15, reactive changes were seen in 11cases (57%), and in age group of 16- 55 years tuberculosis was found in 31 cases (44.2%), and metastatic carcinoma was diagnosed in subjects aged over 55 years with 5 cases (45.4%).