July 16, 2018.
A 35-year-old Dijon woman was treated for hydatidosis, a rare disease in humans, which could have cost her the use of her legs.
She swallows parasite eggs by mistake, and risks losing her legs
Tapeworms don’t just lodge in the intestines. A resident of the Côte d’Or recently experienced this. The story of this patient, who came close to quadriplegia after accidentally ingesting parasite eggs, was recounted in the journal The New England Journal of Medicine, by the doctors who operated on her successfully.
This 35-year-old young woman presented herself at the Dijon University Hospital in the fall of 2017 with very severe back pain. She also claimed to experience forms of electric shocks in her legs as well as weakness in her foot. which was subsequently confirmed by the examinations carried out by the team that took charge of her.
Surgery Removed Worm From Spine
It was thanks to an MRI that the doctors were able to identify their patient’s problem. At the level of the 9th vertebrae of the spine had lodged a tapeworm-like parasite which, since it was located very close to the spinal cord, interfered with the nerve connections of its legs. All it took was surgery to cure this hydatidosis, a disease which generally affects domestic animals.
” Echinococcus is a parasitic cestode that can infect dogs and other pets and farm animals, with humans being accidental hosts “, remember The New England Journal of Medicine. ” Infection can cause cystic lesions in the liver and lungs as well as in the central nervous system and bones. […] At follow-up 9 months after presentation, the patient had no residual symptoms or signs of recurrence “.
Gaelle Latour
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