
Intestinal Perforation due to Tapeworm:
Taenia Solium
1101-1103
Correspondence
Narayan Shrihari. MD (Microbiology)
Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology
Vijayanagar Institute of Medical Science, Bellary,
Karnataka - 583104
Phone: 09481710655.
E mail: shriharimicro@gmail.com
The infestation with tapeworm is a major problem in many parts of the world. A majority of the patients are asymptomatic and do not have serious sequelae. However, sometimes they can cause serious problems like intestinal obstruction due to the entanglement of the worms and the migration of the segments, which may cause appendicitis and intestinal perforation. The infection with Taenia solium is caused due to the ingestion of under cooked pork meat which contains cysticercus cellulosae. The scolex is released after the digestion of the cysticercus which attaches to the intestinal mucosa and starts budding off segments. We received the tapeworm segments from the Department of Surgery. The segments were obtained during emergency exploratory laparotomy of a patient with intestinal perforation and the tapeworm segments were identified as that of Taenia solium in our laboratory.