[Trial therapy of inoperable abdominal hydatid cysts by puncture]

Hydatidosis is a major public health problem in Tunisia. The infection rate in the normal population is over a 100 times higher than in the generally accepted hyperendemicity level (1,720 in 100,000 as against 13 in 100,000!). The use of drugs of benzimidazole derivates prevents the development of scolices into hydatic cysts and allows to try a non-surgical cure by the punction of hydatid cyst of the sheep liver, i.e. aspiration of the cyst fluid and injection of hypertonic salt solution into the drug treated animal. The good results obtained in a group of 16 animals permitted us to apply this method to two patients whose conditions made surgical intervention dangerous. The results although excellent in the case of a secondary peritoneal cyst were less spectacular in the case of secondary liver cyst of whose wall showed signs of involution.