Hydatid disease at a peripheral hospital: a review of 25 years' experience

A review of all patients presenting to Rotorua Hospital over a 25 year period with a diagnosis of hydatid disease was undertaken. The type of presentation, symptoms, signs, and results of investigations were all recorded. Where patients were submitted to surgery, the nature of the procedure and the postoperative course were noted. Mortality, and the presence or absence of recurrent disease at follow up was noted. Thirty-six patients were thus reviewed and the male to female ratio was 24:12. Twenty-nine of the patients were Maori and seven were European. Twenty-one of the patients (58 percent) had liver cysts alone, and 12 of the patients presented acutely. All but six of the patients underwent surgery at rotorua Hospital with a wide variation in the nature of the operative procedures. The overall mortality from hydatid disease was 11 percent and over a mean period of 8.9 years, of the 25 patients available for follow up, 22 remained free of the disease.