A 34-year-old white male chef and butcher had a 3 year history
of epigastric pain and passing active flat worms about 2.54 cm
long in his stool. He passed a segment of worm 61 cm long 1
year before this examination. His weight had remained
unchanged despite a more substantial ingestion of food
secondary to an increased appetite. He had formerly been a cow
slaughterer and worked for an employer who had a tapeworm.
In additon, the patient had a habit of chewing raw bef while tion revealed a white blod cel count of 5,00/mI with 7%
eosinophils. Stol examination was positve for both egs and
proglotids of Taenia saginata.
working. He was treated for tapeworms twice previously without
lasting sucesful results.A plain film of the abdomen revealed a strikng linear density
within a gas-containing midabdominal smal bowel lop (fig. 1).
An uper gastrointestinal series was unremarkable. Smal bowel
examination cleanly outlined an intraluminal, esentialy contin- uous linear filng defect in the distal jejunum and ileum (fig. 2A)
extending into the proximal descending colon (fig. 2B) with no
opacifcation of the worm’s intestinal tract.
The patient was treated with 1 g of atabnine in 20 ml of water administered via a duodenal tube. The patient pased a 2.4 m
length of tapeworm 1 Y2 hr later, but no scolex was recovered on
stol examination. Unfortunately, the patient was lost
to folow-up.