Tuberculosis of the submaxillary salivary gland and lymph nodes in the submaxillary region

Two rare cases of tuberculosis in the oral and maxillofacial regions are presented. In case 1, a 50-year-old woman, submaxillary lymph node and submaxillary salivary gland were involved. Histopathologic examination of the enucleated materials disclosed central caseous necrosis with Langhans' giant cells in the lymph node and granulomatous changes accompanied with miliary epithelioid tubercle in the salivary gland. In case 2, a 24-year-old woman, the so-called “maxillary lymph node” in the buccal region was affected and histopathologic examination of the enucleated material disclosed extensive caseous necrosis accompaniedwith Langhans' giant cells in the great part of the lymph node. Histopathologic diagnosis of both cases was tuberculosis, though no tubercle bacillus was observed on the Ziel-Neelsen stained sections. The chest X-ray film of patient 1 showed old pulmonary tuberculosis and the chest X-ray film of the other revealed nothing particular. Tuberculin reaction was positive in both patients.Both patients underwent chemotherapy after surgical treatment and posttherapeutic course was satisfactory.In addition, we reviewed the tuberculosis cases reported in the Japanese literature of oral and maxillofacial surgery for the last ten years. No cases of tuberculosis of the so-called “maxillary lymph node” and the salivary gland were foundout.