[Biliary ascariasis. Experience at the Dr. Manuel Gea Gonzáles General Hospital]

Six cases of biliary ascariasis were treated at Dr. Manuel Gea González General Hospital in the last sixteen years. The patient population consisted of five female and one male subjects. With a median age of 39 years. Main clinical manifestations were abdominal pain mimicking biliary colic, nausea, vomiting and jaundice. Diagnosis was established during surgery in four patients and by means of abdominal sonogram and endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatogram in two cases. Cholecystitis diagnosis was considered preoperatively in three patients and cholangitis in another one. Five patients were operated on and in one case the worm was successfully removed with the endoscope. Only one patient was complicated with biliary peritonitis, hepatic abscess and reinfestation. No deaths occurred. Mexican literature published in the lasts 25 years is reviewed and the current state in diagnosis and treatment concerning this entity is discussed in this paper.