Fine-needle aspiration to improve diagnosis of melioidosis of the head and neck in children: a study from Sarawak, Malaysia

Table 2 Clinical and biological characteristics of 20 children with head and neck melioidosis admitted to Bintulu Hospital (Sarawak, Malaysia) between 2011 and 2020

No	Year of admission	Age-group, years	Presenting manifestation	Method used for bacterial culture of head or neck lesion		Blood culture
No	Year of admission	Age-group, years	Presenting manifestation	FNA + BCB	Standard	Blood culture
1	2011	2–5	Cervical lymphadenopathy, left	ND	B.p	Negative
2	2011	< 2	Scalp abscess	ND	B.p	Cont
3	2014	> 5	Cervical lymphadenitis, bilateral	ND	ND	B.p
4	2016	< 2	Cervical lymphadenitis, bilateral	B.p	No/min. asp	Negative
5	2016	< 2	Cervical lymphadenitis, left	B.p	No/min. asp	Negative
6	2017	> 5	Cervical lymph node abscess, right	B.p	Negative	Negative
7	2017	> 5	Cervical lymphadenopathy, left	B.p	ND	Negative
8	2018	> 5	Cervical lymphadenitis, bilateral	B.p	B.p	Negative
9	2018	> 5	Cervical lymphadenitis, bilateral^a	ND	ND	B.p
10	2018	2–5	Cervical lymph node abscess, left	B.p	Negative	Negative
11	2018	> 5	Cervical lymphadenitis, bilateral	B.p	Negative	Negative
12	2018	< 2	Cervical lymphadenopathy, left^a	B.p	ND	Negative
13	2018	> 5	Cervical lymphadenopathy, bilateral	B.p	Negative	Negative
14	2019	> 5	Cervical lymphadenitis, right	B.p	No/min. asp	Negative
15	2019	> 5	Cervical lymphadenitis, bilateral	B.p	No/min. asp	Negative
16	2019	> 5	Cervical lymphadenopathy, bilateral	ND	ND	Negative^b
17	2020	> 5	Parotid abscess, bilateral	B.p	Negative	Negative
18	2020	2–5	Cervical lymph node abscess, bilateral	B.p	ND	Negative
19	2020	> 5	Cervical lymphadenopathy, right	B.p	No/min. asp	Negative
20	2020	< 2	Cervical lymph node abscess, left	B.p	Negative	Negative

FNA + BCB, Fine-needle aspiration with inoculation in a blood culture bottle; ND, not done; B.p, Burkholderia pseudomallei; Cont, contaminated; No/min. asp, No or minimal pus/fluid aspirated
^aHead and neck lesions were not the presenting manifestation but were found during physical examination at admission. Case 9 presented with pneumonia and septic arthritis of the right ankle and left knee while Case 12 presented with pyrexia of unknown origin
^bBurkholderia pseudomallei was cultured from a soft tissue abscess on the left foot

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