Posters

Where did it come from?

Poster Details

First Author: M.Benavides VENEZUELA

Co Author(s):    M. Baldo   S. Tauber   S. Fernandez              

Abstract Details

Purpose:

Case report A 69 year-old male presented with a history of pain photophobia and blurred vision on his left eye. Routine eye examination showed a worm in corneal stroma. Following surgical removal, the parasite was identified as Gnathostoma binucleatum

Setting:

Centro Medico Docente La Trinidad Caracas, Venezuela

Methods:

The patient is a 69 year old male, dentist, who was referred to the Cornea Clinic Ophthalmology Service of Centro Medico Docente la Trinidad because of pain, photophobia and blurred vision in his left eye .

Results:

The patient underwent urgent partial thickness keratectomy the next day, under local anesthesia the worm was removed in its totality, without rupture of the surrounding capsule and the material was immediately sent to the microbiology lab where we were able to obtain live video of the worm moving. Photographs and videos where studied at our institution at Microbiology and Molecular biology, Centro Medico Docente La Trinidad and sent abroad to Kittisak Sawanyawisuth, Associate Professor Department de Medicine Faculty of Medicine Khon Kaen University. Thailand We concluded the specimen to be a Gnathostoma binucleatum

Conclusions:

Because the Gnathostoma is not a common parasite in Venezuela, we present our case to stress the importance of carefully obtaining a good history due to first impression diagnosis was a ocular infection with the parasite although initially it was traumatic with subsequent clinical systemic presentation

Financial Disclosure:

NONE