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CASE REPORT article
Front. Med.
Sec. Infectious Diseases: Pathogenesis and Therapy
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1538839
Hepatic alveolar echinococcosis with chest wall metastasis: a case report
Provisionally accepted- 1 Graduate School of Qinghai University, Xining, China
- 2 Department of Internal Medicine-Cardiovascular, Qinghai Provincial People's Hospital, Xining, China
- 3 Department of Hepatic Hydatidosis, Qinghai Provincial People's Hospital, Xining, China
- 4 Department of General Surgery, Qinghai Provincial People’s Hospital, Xining, Qinghai Province, China
Alveolar echinococcosis, a zoonotic parasitic disease caused by Echinococcus multilocularis infection, predominantly colonizes the liver and may metastasize to the lungs or brain in advanced stages. Involvement of extrapulmonary sites such as the chest wall or subcutaneous tissues is exceedingly rare, even in endemic regions. The nonspecific clinical manifestations and imaging features of chest wall alveolar echinococcosis pose diagnostic challenges, necessitating histopathological confirmation. We present a case of a 48-year-old female admitted with a chief complaint of a right supra-mammary mass persisting for over one year. Imaging studies revealed a cystic lesion in the right chest wall and a hypodense hepatic lesion in the right lobe, suggestive of hydatid disease. The patient underwent combined hepatic segmentectomy and chest wall mass resection under general anesthesia. Histopathological examination confirmed alveolar echinococcosis infection in both hepatic and anterior chest wall specimens. The patient achieved complete recovery with no postoperative complications and was discharged uneventfully. Regular oral albendazole therapy has been maintained for six months postoperatively, with no recurrence to date.
Keywords: Alveolar echinococcosis, Liver, chest wall, surgical treatment, case report
Received: 22 Jan 2025; Accepted: 27 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Xu, Ke, Chai, A and Liu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Ji-De A, Department of Hepatic Hydatidosis, Qinghai Provincial People's Hospital, Xining, China
Lin-Xun Liu, Department of General Surgery, Qinghai Provincial People’s Hospital, Xining, Qinghai Province, China
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