Kikuchi disease

Lymphadenopathy is a common reason for consultation in pediatrics. Most of the time, it is benign and self-limiting, but it can also be the initial manifestation of significant or infrequent underlying diseases. Kikuchi-Fujimoto disease, also known as non-lymphocytic histiocytic necrotizing lymphadenitis, is a rare clinical entity that mainly affects young women of Asian descent, although it has a worldwide distribution. It typically manifests with fever and lymphadenopathy, usually at the cervical level, although cases of generalized or extranodal involvement have also been described. An infectious viral or immune-mediated etiology has been proposed, and the association of Kikuchi's disease with autoimmune processes has been described, which calls for immunological monitoring of the disease after diagnosis.

Although it is a benign and self-limiting process, it is a diagnosis of exclusion based on histopathological findings that requires ruling out other diseases with a poorer prognosis that need more specific treatment.