A Summary Of Hydatid Disease In Thailand

摘要

Context: Hydatid disease is a zoonosis caused by the tapeworm of Echinococcus spp. In Southeast Asia, the human hydatid disease is rare.Objective: The author performed a literature review on the reports of hydatid diseases in Thailand in order to summarize the characteristics of this infection among those patients.Design: This study was designed as a descriptive retrospective study. A literature review of the papers concerning hydatid diseases in Thailand was performed.Results: According to this study, there have been at least 10 reports in the literature of hydatid diseases, with 2 lethal cases. Of these 10 cases, 6 were males and 4 were females. Of 9 cases that documented patients' age, the ages ranged from 16 years to 58 years. Lung cyst is the most common manifestation (6 cases), following by liver cyst (2 cases), kidney cyst (1 case) and peritoneal cyst (1 case), orderly. All cases were accidentally detected from histological examination of surgical or autopsy specimens. Most (90%) were identified as E. granulosus infection; however, there was 1 case with E. multilocularis infection. Surgical removals were performed in all except 1 case. Antiparasitic drugs were prescribed in 5 cases: albendazole in 3 cases and albendazole with praziquantel in 2 case. Concerning the two lethal cases, one had neither surgical removal nor antiparasitic drug, the other had both surgical removal and antiparasitic drug but there was accidental rupture of the cyst during surgery. Conclusion: In conclusion, the hydatid disease is a rare cestode infection that is sporadically reported in Thailand. The surgical removal seems to be still an effective method for treatment. Introduction Hydatid disease is a zoonosis caused by the tapeworm of Echinococcus spp. Those species include E. granulosus, E multilocularis, E vogeli or E oligarthrus [1,2,3,4,5]. Its lifecycle is as follows: the tapeworm's eggs are passed in the definitive host (dog and fox)'s feces, and the intermediate hosts, sheep, cattle, goats, horses, camels as well as humans are infected when they eat the eggs. In human, after ingestion of eggs, embryos are released and penetrate the intestinal mucosa, enter the portal circulation, and disseminate throughout various organs, causing cystic lesions, particularly the liver and lungs [1 ,2,3,4, 5]. The hydatid disease is prevalence where livestock is raised in association with dogs. Those endemic areas include Australia, Latin America, Europe, Africa and the Middle East. In Southeast Asia, the human hydatid disease is rare. In Thailand, the first case report of hydatid disease was published in 1936. Since the first case report, there have been sporadic case reports of hydatid diseases in Thailand. Here, the author performed a literature review of the reports of hydatid diseases in Thailand in order to summarize the characteristics of this infection among Thai patients. Materials and Methods This study was designed as a descriptive retrospective study. A literature review of the papers concerning hydatid disease in Thailand was performed, using the database of published works cited in the Index Medicus and Science Citation Index. The author also reviewed the published works in all 256 local Thai journals, which are not included in the international citation index. The literature review focused on the years 1936 - 2004.According to the literature review, reports were recruited for further study. The details of clinical presentations of the patients (such as clinical manifestation, diagnosis, treatment, and discharge status) in all included reports were studied. The demographic data of all cases including age, sex, and location were reviewed as well. Descriptive statistics, including range and percentage, were used in analyzing the patient characteristics and laboratory parameters for each group. All the statistical analyses in this study were made using SPSS 7.0 for Windows. Results According to this study, there have been at least 10 reports [