Systematic Review of Lesser Known Parasitoses: Maxillofacial Dirofilariasis

Abstract

Background Dirofilariasis is an endemic disease in tropical and subtropical countries caused by about 40 different species of dirofilari. Dirofilariasis of the oral cavity is extremely rare and is usually seen as mucosal or submucosal nodules. We also present a case of dirofilariasis of the mandibular third molar region submucosally in a 26 year old male patient. Purpose To identify, enlist and analyze the cases of dirofilariasis in maxillofacial region reported worldwide so as to understand the clinical presentation and encourage the consideration of helminthic infections as a possible differential diagnosis in maxillofacial swellings. Methods Two authors KC and SK independently searched the electronic database of PUBMED, OVID, Google Scholar and manual search from other sources. A general search strategy was planned and anatomic areas of interest identified. The search was made within a bracket of 1 month by the independent authors KC and SK who assessed titles, abstracts and full texts of articles based on the decided keywords. The final selection of articles was screened for the cases that were reported in the maxillofacial region including the age, gender, site of occurrence and region of the world reported in. A geographic distribution of the reported cases was tabulated. Results A total number of 265, 97, 1327, 3 articles were identified by PubMed, Ovid, GoogleScholar and manual search respectively. The final articles were manually searched for duplicates and filtered according to the inclusion/exclusion criteria which led to a final list of 58 unique articles that were included in the study. In total 99 cases were identified. Conclusion Although intraoral dirofilarial infections are extremely uncommon, it should be considered in the differential diagnosis of an intraoral or facial swelling that does not completely respond to routine therapy especially in patients from endemic areas.

Live Intraoral Dirofilaria repens of Lower Lip Mimicking Mucocele—First Reported Case from Croatia

“…Two of them were from France [ 9 , 23 ], and one each was from Italy [ 13 ], Russia [ 18 ], Serbia [ 22 ], and Bulgaria [ 24 ]. Most of the reported cases were from Sri Lanka (nine cases) [ 11 , 17 ] and the rest were from India (five cases) [ 1 , 10 , 12 , 15 , 16 ], Brazil (two cases) [ 19 , 20 ], the United States (one case) [ 21 ], and China (one case) [ 14 ], confirming tropical parts of Asia as endemic areas of Dirofilaria repens infestation. Most of these cases presented as non-painful swelling of the buccal mucosa and were suspected benign tumours, such as lipoma, adenoma, or mucocele [ 17 ], as in our case.…”

“…Most of these cases presented as non-painful swelling of the buccal mucosa and were suspected benign tumours, such as lipoma, adenoma, or mucocele [ 17 ], as in our case. One case presented as painful swelling of the right cheek and a clinical diagnosis of pericoronitis of the lower right wisdom tooth was suspected [ 10 ]. In some of the cases, the use of preoperative and postoperative non-invasive ultrasonography as a radiation-free diagnostic procedure was considered.…”

“…Dirofilariasis can affect people of any age. In their review, Chaudry et al [ 10 ] showed that the mean age of the patients was 39.22 years, with a range of 10 months to 80 years. These findings are also confirmed in the oral Dirofilaria repens cases in Table 1 , showing the range of affected patients from 4 years to 80 years, with a median of 42 years.…”

“…However, dental clinicians are usually unaware of the existence of such an infestation [ 12 ]. The oral cavity is rarely involved and is mostly presented as mucosal and submucosal nodules [ 10 ], and differential diagnoses include lipoma, mucocele, and pleomorphic adenoma. Thus, it is important to point out this rare diagnosis in order to make dentists aware of the possibility of the presence of such an infestation in common lesions of the oral mucosa.…”

Infectious Alertness in Removal Benign Neoplasms in the Maxillofacial Area

“…Согласно данным специальной литературы в Гомельской области регистрируется от 10 до 14 фактов заболевания дирофиляриозом у человека в год [20]. Достаточно часто указанным заболеванием поражается челюстно-лицевая область [21,22].…”