[Arterial complications of hydatic disease]

We report two cases of hydatic cyst with rupture into the aorta in two young patients cared for at the Ibn Sina hospital in Rabat, Morocco. In the first patient, a false hydatic aneurysm of the descending thoracic aorta was discovered at surgery performed for suspected hydatic cyst of the lower lobe of the left lung. Despite reconstruction with a prosthetic graft, the patient died peroperatively due to exsanguination via uncontrollable bleeding through the aneurysmal sac. The second case was a 20-year-old woman whose false hydatic aneurysm of the thoracoabdominal aorta was disclosed by embolic ischemia of the lower limbs. Aorto-aortic reconstruction was followed by medical treatment with albendazol. During follow-up, the patient developed a hydatic cyst of the kidney and a parietal cyst. Both were treated surgically. An analysis of these two cases and 9 others reported in the literature concerning arterial involvement in hydatic disease revealed the characteristic clinical, radiological and therapeutic features of this rare but serious complication.