Specificity Of Diagnosis And Surgical Intervention In Combined Liver Damage Caused By Echinococcosis And Aspergillosis

Abstract

Aspergillosis is a concept that encompasses a wide range of diseases caused by of the genus Aspergillus fungi. Aspergillus saprophytic mold is widespread in the environment, its spores are easily inhaled. However, despite the fact that most people inhale aspergillus spores daily, aspergillosis develops mainly in immunocompromised individuals (due to illness or during immunosuppressive therapy).

Most often, the lungs are affected, which are the usual portal for the penetration of the fungus, as well as the naso-orbital sinus. There are not so many reports of extrapulmonary aspergillosis. Even rarer in the literature are publications about the coexistence of a saprophytic fungus and a hydatid cyst. Only single clinical observations of the coexistence of aspergillosis and echinococcosis in the lungs have been described. The coexistence of these two pathogens in the liver in the available literature we have not seen.

A clinical observation of a 54-year-old woman with two echinococcal cysts in the liver, in the structure of which Aspergillus was revealed is presented.

The coexistence of liver echinococcosis and aspergillosis is extremely rare. Preoperative verification of the presence of local aspergillosis in this case is practically impossible. However, early diagnosis and treatment in this case are vital, preventing possible complications from becoming infected with these two pathogens. Treatment is based on an early morphological diagnosis and the detection of both pathogens.