Boy almost killed by cyst-shaped parasite

According to the Ministry of Health of the Moscow Region, the boy entered the Roshal Children’s Scientific and Clinical Center with complaints of severe abdominal pain after an unsuccessful fall at school. During the examination, doctors found a cyst of the right lobe of the liver in the child, which was located on almost a quarter of the abdomen. The child was urgently referred for surgery, which took about two hours.

As noted by the operating surgeon, Deputy Director of the center Alexander Kurkin, the cause of the cyst was the parasite echinococcus. When laying an egg, the parasite enters the intestine, where a larva leaves it, which penetrates the intestinal wall into the bloodstream and spreads to the organs. And then there is a cystic lesion. Doctors through an incision in the right hypochondrium carefully removed the cyst, sewed the remaining cavity after it and installed drainage into the abdominal cavity for fluid outflow.

Echinococcal cyst is dangerous rupture of organs with the development of anaphylactic shock, compression of the bile ducts, as well as the risk of spreading the parasite and the formation of new foreign bodies. That is why in such cases urgent medical care is required.

The boy's condition is currently assessed as stable. But the patient will still have to undergo a course of antiparasitic therapy.