[Lymphoproliferative disorders of Waldeyer's ring].

Objective: To investigate the incidence and characteristics of lymphoproliferative disorders of Waldeyer's ring in our pediatric patients.

Material and methods: We retrospectively reviewed 20 children under 14 years of age who underwent surgery in our department for adenoidectomy and/or tonsillectomy between 1 January 1996 and 30 November 2000. In non-immunocompromised children, surgical indication was the recent development of progressive unilateral tonsillar hyperplasia, and in immunocompromised patients indication was mainly the enlargement of adenoids and/or tonsils, although eradication of local Ebstein-Barr virus infection and recurrent acute tonsillitis were also indications.

Results: The mean age was 4.6+/-2.3 years (range: 16.9 months-13.9 years). Sixteen patients (80.0 %) were male. In the nine patients with unilateral hyperplasia, histopathological diagnosis was diffuse lymphoid hyperplasia. Of the 11 immunocompromised patients, 5 (45.5 %) had some type of lymphoproliferative disorder.

Discussion and conclusions: Lymphoproliferative disorders of Waldeyer's ring are relatively frequent in immunocompromised children who have undergone surgery of the adenoids and/or tonsils. Although no cases of unilateral hyperplasia of the tonsils were diagnosed in our series, tonsillectomy is indicated in patients with this diagnosis, independent of their immunological status.