[Mebendazole treatment of echinococcosis]

Forty patients with echinococcosis were treated with mebendazole (approximately 50 mg/kg body weight) and under observation for up to 8 years. In 8 patients, E. multilocularis-infection was diagnosed whereas 32 patients had liver (n = 19 lung, n = 7) or other infestations of E. granulosus. 23 patients had been treated with mebendazole alone. 20 further patients received the treatment pre- and post-operatively and in the remaining cases mebendazole was given pre- or post-operatively according to the patients' requirements. Besides the clinical and laboratory findings, morphological parameters of organ infestation due to the parasites were examined repeatedly by x-ray, ultra sound, Ct-scan or scintigram. In the course of treatment we noticed that mebendazole had a certain effect in the case of E. multilocularis-infection and in the case of lung infestation due to E. granulosus. Furthermore, patients who were treated with mebendazole and who were under observation for several years, showed improvement of the liver cyst. The analysis of all morphological data available from patients with liver cysts indicated that marked changes had already been observed in the period of one to thirty months after the beginning of therapy.