Therapeutic evaluation of video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery versus open thoracotomy for pediatric pulmonary hydatid disease

Background

Hydatid disease is a severe and widespread human cestode infection, and in children, the lung is the most commonly infected organ. In current practice, the standard surgical procedure for the removal of pulmonary hydatid cysts is thoracotomy; therefore, we evaluated the efficacy and safety of video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) to treat pediatric pulmonary hydatid disease. To our knowledge, this is the first and large sample comparative study of VATS and thoracotomy for pediatric pulmonary hydatid disease.

Methods

In this study, we retrospectively reviewed 44 (61.1 %) pediatric patients who underwent VATS, and 28 (38.9 %) pediatric patients who underwent conventional thoracotomy from January 2005 to June 2012. Perioperative data, including basic characteristics of patients, the length of hospital stay, intraoperative blood loss, thoracic intubation indwelling time, and complications were compared between VATS and thoracotomy in 72 children with pulmonary hydatid disease.

Results

VATS was found to be a safe technique for the treatment of pediatric pulmonary hydatid disease, with zero intraoperative deaths. In the VATS and thoracotomy groups, the hospital stay durations were 10.50 ± 1.20 days and 17.30 ± 2.75 days, respectively, and occurrence rates of complications were 9.1 % (4/44) and 17.9 % (5/28), respectively. The hospital stays were shorter and the hospitalization costs was reduced for the patients who underwent VATS compared with conventional thoracotomy (P = 0.001). Although no statistically significant difference in the recurrence rates (P = 0.958) and complication incidence (P = 0.273) between the two surgical groups was observed, less intraoperative bleeding, shorter thoracic intubation indwelling time and reduced postoperative pain were observed in the patients who underwent VATS (P = 0.001).

Conclusion

Our study demonstrates the feasibility and safety of VATS for pediatric pulmonary hydatid disease treatment, providing a practice-changing concept for the treatment of this disease in the community. VATS can be a promising therapeutic tool, by overcoming many of the drawbacks of thoracotomy, and can be used as an alternative to thoracotomy for selected pediatric patients.

Hyposkillia: A sign of sagging medical profession-A pediatric perspective

The practice of medicine since Hippocrates, the father of medicine (460-377 BC) had the care of the patient in the core of its ideals which included scholarship; confidentiality, altruism and no harm doing. These ideals evolved from individual physician adoption to professional organization adoption. The medical profession used to have autonomy, prestige, and values centered on patient care. With societal changing values and the appearance of managed care and bioethics the medical profession lost its autonomy, prestige and self regulation. This led to widespread dissatisfaction among the profession members and reflected in deficiency in education and training of medical students and young physicians and resulted in deficiency of clinical skills required to deliver health care. This situation has been referred to as hyposkillia. This sagging has been reported in many countries worldwide and brought concern to many medical education authorities and societies. In this paper nine cases are reported to demonstrate that hyposkillia is also prevalent in our part of the world and show some deficiencies in the clinical skills that are avoidable. Inadequacies in: accurate history taking, complete appropriate physical examination, pertinent investigation and sound critical reasoning in management planning, all precluded optimum health care delivery initially in these cases. Many professional and education authorities have suggested that the process of redemption of the medical profession should start before admission to medical school by change in admission requirements to include behavioral and social sciences, and that the curricula in the medical schools should be redesigned to meet the changing societal values and priorities. Teaching clinical skills should be a continuous lifelong learning process from the medical school through training and into practice. Modern technology is to complement and not to replace bedside teaching and the patient should remain the best teacher for the physician.

A rare case of hydatid cyst of the neck with concurrent pulmonary hydatid disease

Echinococcosis, commonly known as hydatid disease, is a zoonotic infection caused by dog tapeworm Echinococcus granulosus. Hydatid disease of the head and neck region is scarcely reported even in endemic areas. We herein report a case with with neck swelling and respiratory symptoms subsequently diagnosed to have disseminated echinococcosis of the neck and left lung.

The Impact of Pulmonary Hydatid Cyst Rupture on COVID-19 Symptom Severity

BACKGROUND

Co-infection with other microorganisms such as parasites in patients with COVID-19 can affect the clinical outcome and require prompt diagnosis and appropriate therapy.

CASE PRESENTATION

We present a case of an adult male with chest pain, dyspnea, cough, diplopia, and anorexia who was confirmed to have acute COVID-19 pneumonia. 2 weeks prior to admission, a hydatid lung cyst was identified on examination, but the patient refused surgery. Thoracoabdominal computed tomography (CT) revealed a rupture of the lung hydatid cyst and co-infection with COVID-19. The patient has prescribed a treatment protocol for COVID-19 and albendazole. Despite measures taken to manage severe inflammation and decreasing blood oxygen levels, the patient required admission to the intensive care unit (ICU) and intubation. After approximately 3 weeks of hospitalization, the patient was successfully extubated and discharged uneventfully from the hospital. Oral albendazole was prescribed for follow-up treatment.

CONCLUSION

Our case highlights the importance of considering hydatid cysts in the differential diagnosis of patients with COVID-19, especially those living in endemic areas.