Diagnosis and treatment of unusual multiorgan Echinococcus hydatid cysts

Abstract

Background: Echinococcosis is a zoonotic disease caused by Echinococcus granulosus. Usually, the liver is the most affected organ, accounting for approximately 70% to 85% of cases. The lungs represent 20% of the cases. Fewer than 10% are found in other sites, including the bone, brain, spleen, and kidneys.

Case presentation: A young man was referred to a local hospital for dull pain in the right flank, fever, and mild cough. Computed tomography showed 2 large cysts: the first involved the left lung and measured 130 × 90.5 × 120 mm, whereas the second cyst was located in the right kidney and measured 130 × 100 × 120 mm. Surgery was performed to remove both lesions in 2 separate surgical sessions.

Conclusions: Echinococcosis is a compulsorily notifiable disease. Collaboration between medical doctors from different specializations is necessary. A multidisciplinary approach is important for the correct therapeutic management of the disease. Furthermore, the high possibility of recurrence makes the long-term follow-up mandatory.

Keywords

Cyst / Echinococcosis / Infection / Kidney / Nephrectomy

Author summay

Supplemental Digital Content is available for this article.

Acknowledgments

None.

Statement of ethics

Ethical approval for publication was completed following the University of Sassari Hospital guidelines trust policy. Patient has given written permission/consent for this publication including sharing clinical information as well as images for publication. All procedures performed in study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Conflict of interest statement

No conflict of interest has been declared by the authors.

Funding source

None.

Author contributions

GD: Conceptualization, investigation, methodology, writing-original draft, writing-review and editing;

CS: Data curation, formal analysis, methodology, writing-original draft;

SM: Writing-original draft;

FS: Conceptualization, supervision, validation, visualization, writing-review and editing;

MM: Conceptualization, supervision, validation, visualization.

Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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