Surgical approach for patients with unusually located hydatid cyst

Hydatid cyst is a parasitic disease caused by Echinococcus granulosus whose people is the intermediate host. Although this parasite can settle in any part of the human body, it is frequently seen in liver and lungs. The rate of unusual located hydatid cyst outside of liver and lungs is 13,9%. In this study, we aimed presenting unusual located hydatic cysts regarding 51 patients.

In this retrospective study, the files of the patients operated in our department between 2005 and 2012 with the diagnosis of hydatid cyst, characterized be an additional location besides liver and lung involvement and located outside of liver and lung were controlled.

We had a total of 51 patients between the ages of 6-79 (average age 35,34), 20 of them were men (39%) and the others were women (61%) (men/women = 1.56). The cysts outside of liver and lung were frequently seen in spleen (24/51), ovarium (9/51), intraabdominal (8/51), brain (8/51), kidney (6/51), psoas muscle (1/51), bladder (1/51), cervical lymph node (1/51), the heart(1/51) respectively. The most frequent symptom in our patients was stomachache. Besides, symptoms of cough, fever, respiratory disorder were present; only one patient suffered from hemophtysis. While 32 patient out of 51 were treated by laparotomy, 8 patients were operated with laparotomy and thoracotomy in the same session; the patient with 2 ovarian cysts was submitted to cystectomy through laparoscopic surgery. As a patient had a cyst both in brain and liver, he was submutted to laparotomy and craniotomy. 46 cysts in 9 patients with lung involvement were treated with lung resections: 7 wedges resection and 2 segmentectomies. The other lung cysts of the analysed patients were treated by cystectomy and capitonnage. Bile leakage was detected in a total of 7 patients: 3 of them were treated with T tube drainage and the others were endoscopically healed by means of ERCP.

The incidence of hydatid cyst, which is an important health problem in endemic areas, can be reduced by means of simple preventive measures. Its basic treatment is surgery. Main objective of the surgery should be parenchyma sparing while taking off completely the cysts. Although the disease is frequently seen in liver and lung, other organ involvements should be considered. Thus, it does not matter where hydatid cyst is seen, abdomen and thorax should be attentively controlled by the simplest imaging method also outside of clinical symptoms. Abdomen and thorax imaging should be carried out at least once in the two following years to have an early detection of an eventual recurrence.