Albendazole therapy for giant subarachnoid cysticerci

Albendazole is considered to be the drug of choice for treatment of parenchymal brain cysticercosis. Its efficacy, however, for treatment of subarachnoid cysticerci has not been established, to our knowledge. In this study, we treated four patients who had giant subarachnoid cysticerci with albendazole at daily doses of 15 mg/kg of body weight for 8 days. Computed tomographic studies showed that all cysts disappeared 3 months after the end of treatment. This was associated with marked clinical improvement in every case. Our results indicated that albendazole is highly effective for treatment of this form of the disease.