Medical Questions » Neck Questions » Question No. 714
| Question: | My doctor keeps feeling my son' s neck for glands every time I take him for a cold or sore throat. He prescribes antibiotics if the glands are tender. Why do your glands get sore when you have an infection? |
| Answer: | If you have an infected cut on a finger, the bacteria can enter the lymph ducts, and slowly move along them towards the vital organs of the body. The neck glands are not really glands at all (glands secrete hormones) but are correctly called lymph nodes.
The lymph nodes act as filters along the lymph ducts, removing unwanted bacteria and viruses from the lymphatic fluid, and preventing them from progressing further. This filtering process is occurring every second of every day, but in the process of collecting and destroying germs, the lymph nodes are occasionally overwhelmed by the vast numbers of bacteria or viruses, and themselves become hot, red, sore, enlarged and infected. Some germs can then get past the nodes, and cause the fevers and muscular pains associated with a generalised infection.
Without the vital lymph nodes and their vast numbers of white cells that can engulf and destroy bacteria and viruses, severe body infections would be a regular occurrence rather than an occasional nuisance.
Once lymph nodes become infected by a bacteria, antibiotics are required to assist the body in the fight against them. If treated promptly, the nodes will soon return to normal, but delay may result in an abscess forming in the node.
After a severe infection, some nodes may remain as hard lumps due to the scar tissue within them caused by the overwhelming infection. These painless lumps may take months or years to disappear.
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