[Management of hydatid disease of the lung]

Cystic echinococcosis is a worldwide zoonose which is not infectious from man to man occurring seldom in our country. The diagnosis and the treatment of a case of a 4-year-old girl with large left-sided lung cyst were presented. Diagnosis was based on history, clinical findings, imaging techniques (conventional X-ray examination, ultrasonography, computer tomography), eosinophilia (7-50%) in blood smear, leucocytosis (28,000), increased sedimentation of blood (85 mm/hour), significantly elevated antibody against of Echinococcus in immunodiagnostic test (passive haemagglutination) with high sensitivity and specificity, light microscopic radiological and scanning electronmicroscopic analysis of cyst content. Continuous thoracic drainage, twice percutan drainage under CT guidance and a new technique for treatment as Puncture-Aspiration-Injection-Respiration and lavage with hypertonic sodium chlorate, long-term chemotherapy with benzimidazole-carbamates (Vermox: 20 mg/kg/day, Zentel: 30-50 mg/kg/day) were reported. The cyst was grown down into a solid mass as large as 4 cm. The body-weight of this child has grown 6 kilograms and laboratory parameters were normalized.