Small bowel ascariasis

Case contributed by Michael P Hartung
Diagnosis almost certain

Presentation

Trauma - fall from tree.

Patient Data

Age: 10 years
Gender: Male
ct

Motion degraded. Soft tissue injury with suspected foreign body (stick/wood) in the left body wall and groin with air. 

Oral contrast in the small bowel, which is filled with many thin tubular structures, several of which have ingested contrast. 

Annotated

Arrows/circles indicate sites of disease. 

Case Discussion

Striking case of small bowel ascariasis with extensive disease burden, incidentally detected at the time of a trauma CT. Although motion degraded, careful inspection of the images reveals very large number of worms throughout the small bowel. This patient is at risk of developing a small bowel obstruction after undergoing oral antihelminth therapy. 

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