Onchocerciasis of the flexor compartment of the forearm: a case report

A 36-year-old white male schoolteacher presented with a painless, semifluctuant mass on the volar aspect of his forearm and symptoms of ring finger tenosynovitis and median nerve compression. At operation there was a widespread infestation of the flexor tendon compartment, the carpal tunnel, and the tendon sheaths of the ringer finger with Onchocerca volvulus, a filarial nematode, not previously reported in the these tissues.