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What Causes A Swollen Neck Gland On Left Side?
Question: I have a swollen neck gland on the left side. What could be causing this?
Brief Answer:
Lymph node, sebaceous cyst, lipoma, cancer...
Detailed Answer:
Hi.
Thanks for your query, albeit short and specific.
To recapitulate: Male/74 - just discovered 15 minutes ago the swelling on the left side of neck - wants to know the cause...
The commonest cause of such a swelling in the neck is lymph node enlargement and usually due to infection the the drainage area of that particular node/group of nodes. Many a times it is difficult to find the focus as it can be a just trivial infection not bothering you or undetectable. And sometimes obvious like caries tooth, a boil or skin infection of any sort in the drainage area like in the scalp or ear and so on. These are usually painful, tender to touch, may be restricted mobility with redness of the skin over it and so on.
Other causes can be due to cancer or so. In this case these are always non-tender, are firm to hard, may be fixed or restricted mobility.
Sebaceous cyst, liopma are rare to occur on lateral side of neck.
This can be detected by Ultrasonography and the FNAC meaning fine needle aspiration cytology gives the proper diagnosis in most of the cases, the remaining few can need an excision biopsy.
If there is an inflammation a course of an antibiotic and anti-inflammatory medicines given by Doctor may resolve this.
I hope this answers your query and helps to get an early and proper diagnosis.
Please feel free to ask for further relevant queries if you feel that there is a gap of communication.
Lymph node, sebaceous cyst, lipoma, cancer...
Detailed Answer:
Hi.
Thanks for your query, albeit short and specific.
To recapitulate: Male/74 - just discovered 15 minutes ago the swelling on the left side of neck - wants to know the cause...
The commonest cause of such a swelling in the neck is lymph node enlargement and usually due to infection the the drainage area of that particular node/group of nodes. Many a times it is difficult to find the focus as it can be a just trivial infection not bothering you or undetectable. And sometimes obvious like caries tooth, a boil or skin infection of any sort in the drainage area like in the scalp or ear and so on. These are usually painful, tender to touch, may be restricted mobility with redness of the skin over it and so on.
Other causes can be due to cancer or so. In this case these are always non-tender, are firm to hard, may be fixed or restricted mobility.
Sebaceous cyst, liopma are rare to occur on lateral side of neck.
This can be detected by Ultrasonography and the FNAC meaning fine needle aspiration cytology gives the proper diagnosis in most of the cases, the remaining few can need an excision biopsy.
If there is an inflammation a course of an antibiotic and anti-inflammatory medicines given by Doctor may resolve this.
I hope this answers your query and helps to get an early and proper diagnosis.
Please feel free to ask for further relevant queries if you feel that there is a gap of communication.
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Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Answered by
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