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Intestinal anisakiasis with severe intestinal ischemia caused by extraluminal live larvae: a case report

Kengo Shibata, Y. Yoshida, Yoichi Miyaoka, Shin Emoto, Tomoaki Kawai, Seiji Kobayashi, K. Ogasawara, A. Taketomi

Surgery Case Reports, 2020

17 citations

Abstract

Background Anisakiasis is a parasitic infection caused by Anisakis worms found in raw fish. Most cases of anisakiasis occur in the stomach and rarely occur in the intestine. It is extremely rare for live larvae to break through the intestine into the mesentery and cause severe intestinal ischemia. Anisakiasis can be treated conservatively, because the larvae will die in approximately 1 week, but, sometimes, a serious condition can arise, as in this case. We report the first case of extraluminal anisakiasis in which a live Anisakis worm caused severe intestinal ischemia. Case presentation The patient was a 26-year-old woman who ate squid a week prior. She had abdominal pain and was admitted to our emergency department. On physical examination, abdominal guarding and rebound tenderness were present in her lower abdomen. Contrast-enhanced computed tomography showed ascites, the whirl sign, localized submucosal edema of the intestinal wall, and a dilated small bowel segment with edema. We suspected the strangulated small bowel obstruction based on the CT-scan findings. To rule out the strangulated small bowel obstruction, laparoscopic exploration was performed. Bloody ascites in the pouch of Douglas and severe inflammation in 20 cm of the ileum were observed. An Anisakis larva had perforated the intestinal wall and was found alive in the mesentery. The ileum had developed a high degree of ischemia, so the affected section was resected. Histopathological examination revealed that…

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