Tuberculous Lymphadenopathy Causing Dysphagia: Report of Two Cases

Abstract

We report two cases of tuberculous lymphadenopathy causing dysphagia. The first patient was HIV positive and the second patient had immigrated recently from India. Culture in both patients grew Mycobacterium tuberculosis that was fully sensitive to first line drugs. Dysphagia may result from intrinsic or extrinsic involvement of the esophagus. Extrinsic involvement is more common and results from cervical and mediastinal lymph node enlargement (as in these 2 cases) that causes external compression on the wall of the esophagus. The dysphagia subsided completely after 4 weeks of antituberculous therapy in both cases.