Hepatic Ascaridiasis

Summary

Adult Ascaris, which are usually found in the intestine, can enter the ampulla of Vater if the sphincter of Oddi is not efficient. This situation seems common in children; in adults it occurs after endoscopic or surgical sphincterotomy.

The worms can then migrate up into the intrahepatic bile ducts and provoke biliary stasis which may become infected and complicated by abscesses. It is inside such abscesses that we may find fragments of adult Ascaris. In the 4 cases reported in the literature during the last 20 years, we note in particular that the clinical signs vary considerably, according to the age of the patient. In children, the parasitic infestation is often massive and the clinical features are extremely serious, namely shock and acute abdominal pain, which lead to a laparotomy being done. In adults, the clinical feature is that of a biliary infection. Here we describe a fifth case of hepatic ascaridiasis which differs from the others in that the diagnosis was established by ERCP and CT scan and that treatment was medical.

Key words:

Ascaris - Worms in the intrahepatic bile duct - Abscesses