Doctors had to remove six meters of overlong tapeworm during surgery

Chinese patient lived for years with meter-long tapeworm in the intestine
Tapeworms can develop a huge size in the human body and cause considerable discomfort. For example, Chinese medical experts in the journal New England Journal of Medicine report the case of a 38-year-old man who has had a more than six-meter-long cattle tapeworm (Taenia saginata) removed. Infection with T. saginata occurs by eating raw or insufficiently cooked beef.

According to the physicians, the affected Chinese patient has been examined and treated by various doctors over the past two years for his symptoms such as abdominal pain and chronic anemia. However, this did not bring success. Eventually he was admitted to the Shiyan Hospital for a significant increase in abdominal pain, vomiting, loss of appetite, general weakness, and drastic weight loss within three days. There, the doctors removed the impressively large cattle tapeworm.

In the human body, cattle tapeworms can become meters long. (Image: Juulijs / fotolia.com)

6.2 meters long cattle tapeworm eliminated
Initially, the study was largely unremarkable, but the microscopic analysis of the stool revealed the fertilized ovum of cattle tapeworm, according to Jian Li and Eping Guo of the Hubei University of Medicine in Shiyan. This was followed by treatment with the anthelminthic (vermifuge) praziquantel and the diuretic (dehydrating drugs) mannitol. After "about two and a half hours, the patient retired a tapeworm that was 6.2 meters long, excluding the scolex (tapeworm head)," the researchers write in the New England Journal of Medicine..

Infection over raw or undercooked beef
People infect themselves, according to the doctors "by the intake of Finns of T. saginata in the consumption of raw or insufficiently cooked beef." The tapeworm is stuck in the intestine and can grow to a length of several meters. Humans make up their only end host. According to the doctors, the 38-year-old Chinese patient was symptom-free at the follow-up visit after three months and showed a recovery in appetite and weight. (Fp)