Journal of Bacteriology & Parasitology

Abstract

Intestinal Obstruction by Ascaris lumbricoides in a 12-year-Old Boy: A Case Report in Pakistan

Wali Khan, Imran and Abdul Wahab

Background: Ascariasis is a severe parasitic disease widely prevalent in remote parts of Pakistan due to poor sanitation, and improper water supply system.

Objective: The aim of this study is to describe an unusual clinical course of severe intestinal ascariasis in a boy of 12 years old in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.

Methods: Multi-disciplinary clinical and laboratory examinations, including physiological and immunodiagnostic techniques, socioeconomic status and imaging, have been performed during hospitalization.

Results: A case of severe intestinal ascariasis was diagnosed at an age of 12 years old. The patient felt headache, abdominal pain and vomiting. Pre operation diagnosis was included: erythrocytes below and leucocytes were above the normal range. Blood, pressure, temperature and serum amylase were normal. Three days after his admission to the hospital, 03 kilograms roundworms were evidenced from the small intestine in a surgical trauma of the patient. Based on their morphological characterization the parasites were identified as Ascaris lumbricoides.

Conclusions: Ascariasis should always be taken into consideration in a differential diagnosis of irregular spaceoccupying lesions located in the intestine, especially in patients who live in endemic areas and their epidemiological history indicates potential risk factors for the infection. In children appendicitis is more frequently recognized than in old age, and a clinical prognosis can be no less severe than in young patients. Early diagnosis of A. lumbricoides infection in humans provides the choice of proper and optimal treatment for saving or significantly extending a patient’s life.