Live encysted Thelazia callipaeda presenting as a lump adjacent to the right lacrimal sac in a 42-year-old female: A rare case report

Abstract

Thelazia callipaeda or the oriental eye worm infects a wide variety of hosts including dogs, cats, foxes, rabbits, and humans through the Drosophila flies. We report here a case of a 42-year-old female who presented with pain, redness, and cystic swelling in the right lacrimal sac area for 8 months. Ocular examination was within normal limits. Excision biopsy of the cyst revealed a live worm. In humans, the worm is usually found in the conjunctival sac, lacrimal canaliculi, or the lacrimal sac leading to a disease which can be subclinical or symptomatic. Thus, we report a rare presentation of thelaziasis, that is, periocular involvement. This case presentation is first of its kind in the Indian literature.

Ocular thelaziasis: A case report from Assam, India

“…Probably, the first case of T. callipaeda infection was reported from Salem district, Tamil Nadu, India, in 1948. [5] Subsequently, there are a few cases of thelazia infestation among humans reported from India including four reports from Assam[1356789101112] [Table 1]. There are earlier reports of this parasite in dogs from Assam which bears significance from the public health point of view since it has been reported in human from Assam[367] and the neighboring state of Manipur.…”

Unusual Presentation of Thelazia callipaeda in the Anterior Chamber of a Human Eye

“…The parasite is usually found in the conjunctival sac, lacrimal sac or as a lump at lacrimal sac. 1 Here, we report a peculiar case of T. callipaeda detected in the anterior chamber of a human eye. when infected usually presents with signs and symptoms such as foreign body sensation, epiphora, follicular hypertrophy to severe keratitis, photophobia corneal opacities, ectropion, and secondary bacterial infections.…”

“…Railliet and Henry first described the arthropod-borne zoonosis, Thelazia callipaeda in 1910. 1 It is mainly confined to South Asian countries and is also known as the "Oriental eye worm". 2 T. callipaeda is prevalent in India, Thailand, China, Korea, Japan, Russia, Northern Europe and Southern Italy.…”

Rabbit-derived human Thelazia callipaeda infection: a case report

“…This timing was consistent with a history of rabbit hair entering the patient's eye two weeks ago. Adult worm parasite in the conjunctival sac of the human eye (Bradbury et al, 2018), can also be seen in the anterior chamber, lacrimal tubule, lacrimal sac (Das et al, 2018), vitreous cavity 7 , retinal pigment epithelium (Kim et al, 2010) and other places, mostly invade the side of the eye, a few cases can involve binocular. Periocular thelaziasis can also be expressed as asymptomatic orbital mass (Koka et al, 2019).…”