Diagnostic approach of tuberculous lymphadenitis in a multicenter study.

INTRODUCTION: Tuberculous lymphadenitis (TBLN) is the most common infectious etiology of peripheral lymphadenopathy in adults, in Turkiye. This study aimed to identify the demographic, clinical, and laboratory variables that differentiate TBLN from non-tuberculous lymphadenitis (NTBLN), as well as the etiology of lymphadenopathy in adults. METHODOLOGY: Patients who were over 18 years old and were referred to the infectious disease outpatient clinics with complaints of swollen peripheral lymph nodes, and who underwent lymph node biopsy between 1 January 2010 and 1 March 2021, were included in this multicenter, nested case-control study. RESULTS: A total of 812 patients at 17 tertiary teaching and research hospitals in Turkiye were included in the study. TBLN was the most frequent diagnosis (53.69%). The proportion of patients diagnosed with TBLN was higher among females; and among those who had a higher erythrocyte sedimentation rate, positive purified protein derivative test, and positive interferon-gamma release test result (p < 0.05). However, TBLN was less frequent among patients with generalized lymphadenopathy, bilateral lymphadenopathy, axillary lymphadenopathy, inguinal lymphadenopathy, hepatomegaly, splenomegaly, leukocytosis, and moderately increased C reactive protein levels (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Identifying the variables that predict TBLN or discriminate TBLN from NTBLN will help clinicians establish optimal clinical strategies for the diagnosis of adult lymphadenopathy.

Surgical Antimicrobial Prophylaxis Compliance in Turkey: Data from the Prospective, Observational, Multicenter Survey Including 7,978 Surgical Patients.

Background: Surgical antimicrobial prophylaxis (SAP) is the peri-operative administration of antimicrobial agents. Compliance rates vary worldwide from 15% to 84.3%, with studies in Turkey not exceeding 35%. The aim of this multicenter study was to determine the rate of appropriate antibiotic class, timing, and duration as well as discharge prescriptions in Turkey. Thus, we aimed to determine the rate of full compliance with SAP procedures in our country Patients and Methods: This multicenter, prospective, observational, descriptive study was conducted in 47 hospitals from 28 provinces in seven different regions of Turkey. Patients over 18 years of age in all surgical units between June 6, 2022, and June 10, 2022, were included in the study. Results: Of the 7,978 patients included in the study, 332 were excluded from further analyses because of pre-existing infection, and SAP compliance analyses were performed on the remaining 7,646 cases. The antibiotic most commonly used for SAP was cefazolin (n = 4,701; 61.5%), followed by third-generation cephalosporins (n = 596; 7.8%). The most common time to start SAP was within 30 minutes before surgery (n = 2,252; 32.5%), followed by 30 to 60 minutes before surgery (n = 1,638; 23.6%). Surgical antimicrobial prophylaxis duration was <24 hours in 3,516 (50.7%) patients and prolonged until discharge in 1,505 (21.7%) patients. Finally, the actual proportion of patients compliant with SAP was 19% (n = 1,452) after omitting 4,458 (58.3%) patients who were prescribed oral antibiotic agents at discharge as part of a prolonged SAP. Conclusions: Surgical antimicrobial prophylaxis compliance rates are still very low in Turkey. Prolonged duration of SAP and especially high rate of antibiotic prescription at discharge are the main reasons for non-compliance with SAP.