Abstract
Background: hydatid disease is a parasitic disease endemic in many sheep-raising countries; it is still a significant health problem in Iraq.Objective: To evaluate the surgical management, postoperative complications, and results of surgery in our unit and compare them with other studies around our country. Study Design: case series with chart review. Setting: IBN AL-NAFEES teaching hospital for Cardiovascular and thoracic surgery. Patients & Methods: the clinical courses of 130 patients with thoracic and hepatic hydatid disease operated on from the 1st of January 2010 to the 30th December 2011 are studied. All surgical procedures were performed under general anesthesia. Lateral thoracotomy at the level of the fourth to the sixth rib, depending on the number and location of the cyst, provided ideal exposure for the surgical treatment of pulmonary hydatid disease. Results: from 130 patients with pulmonary hydatid disease (33%) were females and (67%) were males, sixty-five were percent of them from rural areas. Age distribution ranged from (8-75) years; the majority were in the second, third, and fourth decades of life. The right lung was more frequently affected than the left. Eighty percent of patients had a single hydatid cyst, while (20%) had bilateral. Conservative operations were performed in (67%) while resection was done in (33%). Mortality rate was (1.5%). Conclusions: Hydatid disease is still endemic in Iraq. Surgery is the treatment of choice for most patients with pulmonary hydatid disease. Conservative surgical procedures which preserve lung parenchyma are preferred. The mortality in our study (1.5%) parallels other studies.
Keywords
Pulmonary hydatid disease, Hydatid, Echinococcus, multilocular, pulmonary