The Thai case of intraperitoneal sparganosis is also
the first ever reported.13 The patient had abdominal
pain and discomfort as well as an abdominal mass.
Someadditionalcases ofintraperitonealsparganosis
have been reported in Japan40 and the USA.41 For
deep sparganosis infections, additionaltherapy with
albendazole is recommended.41—42
An important limitation of this study should be
mentioned. Because this is a collection of published
case reports there will be a publication bias towards
rare complications of the disease rather than the
most common clinicalmanifestations. Inconclusion,
most sparganosis cases reported from Thailand presented with superficial ocular mass lesions. The
major risk behaviour in Thailand is drinking contaminated water (Table 2). Some cases of serious
deep visceral sparganosis have also been reported.
Surgical excision of the parasite resulted in a cure of
disease in most cases.