Hydatid echinococcosis - Symptoms

Hydatid echinococcosis has 3 stages: preclinical, uncomplicated and complicated stage.

In the most common lesion - echinococcosis of the liver - the first symptoms of the disease usually appear several years or even decades after infection. Often, echinococcosis is diagnosed by chance (during routine fluorography, ultrasound) or during targeted examination of the population in foci. Hydatid echinococcosis is more often detected in middle-aged people. Typical symptoms of hydatid echinococcosis of the liver in uncomplicated cases are decreased performance, general weakness, dyspeptic disorders, headaches, and sometimes allergic manifestations: skin rashes, itching, and eosinophilia in the blood. The liver is enlarged, dense (with the bladder localized deep in the parenchyma) or soft, elastic (with a superficial cyst) on palpation; with calcification, it is woody-dense.

Symptoms of pulmonary echinococcosis are determined by the location of the cyst and the rate of its growth. Even a small cyst located near the pleura manifests itself early with pain syndrome, and if localized near the bronchial trunk - with persistent dry cough, hemoptysis, chest pain, shortness of breath. Deformation of the chest, smoothing of the intercostal spaces, lagging breathing on the affected side, shortening of the percussion sound and weakening of breathing over the cyst are possible. With small single cysts, symptoms of hydatid echinococcosis may be absent, but the course of the disease can change dramatically when the cyst is opened. When breaking through into the bronchus, a strong cough, suffocation, cyanosis appear, severe allergic reactions and aspiration pneumonia are possible. Breakthrough into the pleural cavity leads to the development of acute exudative pleurisy, in severe cases anaphylactic shock occurs. and perforation into the pericardial cavity can cause sudden death.

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Complications of hydatid echinococcosis

The most common complications of hydatid echinococcosis of the liver are suppuration of the echinococcal cyst (addition of secondary bacterial flora when the echinococcus dies), rupture or compression of the bile ducts by the cyst with the development of obstructive jaundice. Cholangitis is possible, followed by the development of biliary cirrhosis, amyloidosis. Large cysts can compress large vessels of the portal system, which leads to the development of portal hypertension. A serious complication is cyst rupture, which can be provoked by a blow, lifting weights, rough palpation. Cyst rupture is accompanied by severe pain and manifestations of an allergic reaction of varying severity, up to the development of anaphylactic shock. As a result of rupture of a viable liver cyst, the pathogen disseminates into the abdominal cavity and secondary multiple echinococcosis of other organs develops.

Symptoms of secondary multiple echinococcosis caused by dissemination of the pathogen after cyst rupture appear after 1-2 years or more. When the parasite is localized in the brain, orbit, spinal canal or myocardium, even small cysts can give pronounced symptoms similar to a volumetric lesion. A rapid, "galloping" course of echinococcosis with accelerated growth of bubbles is noted in people with immunodeficiency, severe chronic diseases, in pregnant women; such a course often develops in infested people who are not native to the foci of invasion.

Echinococcosis of the lungs can be complicated by repeated pulmonary hemorrhages and acute cardiovascular failure.

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