Disseminated cerebral hydatid disease (multiple intracranial echinococcosis)

Abstract

Intracranial echinococcosis is relatively uncommon and usually occurs in the context of echinococcal lesions elsewhere in the body, mostly liver and lung. Multiple intracranial lesions can result from rupture of an initial single intracranial cyst (in cystic echinococcosis) or from dissemination of systemic disease of the lung, liver or heart (cystic and alveolar echinococcosis). The two main subtypes, cystic and alveolar echinococcosis, present differently and have distinct imaging features in the brain. We discuss the presentation, imaging findings and clinical course of three cases (two cystic and one alveolar) of intracranial echinococcal disease in adults.

Zoonotic and vector-borne parasites and epilepsy in low-income and middle-income countries

“…Neurological involvement is thought to be common but has not been accurately quantified 156 . Another cestode, Echinococcus granulosus, is endemic in many countries and regions 157 . Visceral organ involvement is common, whereas cerebral involvement is rare but distinctive enough to be easily recognized on imaging studies.…”

Worldwide literature on epidemiology of human alveolar echinococcosis: a systematic review of research published in the twenty-first century

“…Until the end of the 1980s, the disease was considered endemic only in the ‘historical’ AE area of western Europe (France, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria) [ 89 ], but human infection has already been reported in 20 European countries since 2001. Only the cases in Denmark and the United Kingdom were considered to be non-autochthonous in the respective publications [ 68 , 90 , 91 ]. Figures for all the affected western European countries have shown an increase.…”

Cerebral Cystic Echinococcosis

“…e length of postoperative treatment is empirical and needs to be adapted to the individual case [11,32]. At least a few patients have been treated exclusively with albendazole but follow-up data are lacking [29,33].…”